NYR 7-11-11 - Lightning McQueen is back in the house

The first movie that Mac fell in love with was Cars. We saw it in the theater with my mom and dad and bought the dvd as soon as it came out. And watched it over and over and over and over. I cannot stress to you how many times he watched that movie. I remember being on a beach trip to the northeast of Brazil, during which time Mac turned 4 years old, and I distinctly remember that the Cars movie played nonstop. We heard it in the rental house, in the hotel room, in the rental car. Non.stop. It was the soundtrack of our lives for a long while.

Because that movie was so successful, I have no idea why it took them so long to come out with Cars 2, but we happily saw it with my mom today. I felt like we welcomed an old friend back to the family.

For Lightning McQueen and his latest trip around the world, I am truly thankful.

5-20-11 - aye matey!

Tonight the three of us went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. That's part 4 of this series in case you haven't been counting.

We promised Mac we'd go see it on opening night, but unfortunately I never got to the theater earlier this week to buy the tickets ahead of time. I've learned time and time again that failure to buy ahead of time is a big mistake here in Bogota (for "big deal movies" or even average cultural events), but I never remember the lesson.

So when I finally rolled up at the theater around 2pm yesterday, there were about 9 seats left, all in the first three rows.

That means we watched 2 hours of Captain Jack Sparrow.

In 3D.

From the 3rd row.

That's a lot of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Sounds like heaven, right?

I dozed for a few minutes in the beginning, but overall, the Story family's movie review is a solid two thumbs up.

Johnny Depp is his usual fabulous self, Penelope Cruz makes a great pirate, and Geoffrey Rush is always wonderful in anything. And the mermaids? Well, if you haven't seen the movie yet, these are you not your average Little Mermaids. It might be a Disney movie, but these sirens of the sea could not hang out with Mickey Mouse at the Castle. YIKES!

Great movie, great outing with my boys, and for that, I'm truly thankful.

NYR 2-12-11

For a yummy dinner out and getting to see The Fighter, which I practically produced (and LOVED as a movie), I am truly thankful.

The Fighter

Last August, I went to Boston to visit our childhood friend who was working on the film The Fighter. If you need a refresher on my trip, you can read about it here and here.

The trailer's come out for the movie's opening in December and I thought I'd share it with you here.

I feel personally vested in the movie since I saw Mark Wahlberg up close and personal and got to sit in the producer's chair while they were filming. I mean, my name might even be in the credits somewhere since I was such an important hanger-on around the set. I'm just saying...