TV: Pride & Prejudice

I love the 1995 BBC miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice. It stars Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Julia Swahala, Alison Steadman, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Anna Chancellor, and many others. It is based on the book as closely as possible. You could almost use the book for the script of the mini-series. If you have never watched it, you should watch it. It's very funny and delightful. It's classic!

TV: Shrek 2

Shrek 2 is very funny. Shrek & Fiona are invited to her parents' castle for a wedding reception. When they see Fiona in her new form, they are surprised. Her father had special plans that went bad and he has to try to fix it. Starring Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Saunders.

TV: Shrek

Shrek is a ogre whose space is overtaken by some fairytale creatures. He goes with Donkey to save Princess Fiona from the fire-breathing dragon's castle for Lord Farquaad so he can get his privacy back at the swamp. Very funny movie. Stars Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, and John Lithgow. Animated.

TV: Shark Tale

If you want a good movie, pick up Shark Tale. This is such a cute movie. It's animated. It has lots of gorgeous colors in it! It stars the voices of Will Smith, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger, Robert DeNiro, and many other big name stars. The gist of the movie is that Oscar thinks he needs to live in a penthouse and make a lot of money to be "somebody". He learns through some sharks that it's important to accept people as they are and to be happy with who you are.

TV: The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club is a funny movie. It's about three women whose husbands all left them for a younger woman. These women were friends in college and their fourth friend committed suicide because her husband left her for a younger woman. So, they re-bond and decide they are going to work together to stick it to their ex-husbands. But then they realize they were thinking too small. They decide to build a crisis/help center for women and they name it after their friend Cynthia Swann Griffen. It has a lot of top stars: Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Maggie Smith, Phillip Bosco, Dan Hedaya, Stephen Collins, Victor Garber, Dina Waters, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Rob Reiner.

TV: Faith Like Potatoes

Faith Like Potatoes is an excellent movie. It's based on the true story of Angus Buchan. He is a Scottish man who has lived his whole life in Africa. He was a farmer in Zambia but after a bad crop during a time with there were violent wars all around, he decides to move to another area.  He moves to the Zulu area. He farms. He has a violent temper. His wife convinces him to go to a pancake breakfast at a local church and then one of the members there invites him to come to church the next day to hear some of the local farmers speak. He goes and while he's listening, he remembers that he was once at a revival and he knows he needs to get saved, so he does. Then he wants to do God's will and God tells him he needs to share his story and then he needs to organize a prayer meeting for all the local farmers to pray against the violence and the drought. He shares the verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (NIV version) There is one sad part at the end of the movie where a family member dies.

TV: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It stars Kate Hudson as Andie Anderson, Matthew McConaughey as Benjamin Barry, Kathryn Hahn as Michelle, Annie Parisse as Jeannie, Adam Goldberg as Tony, Thomas Lennon as Thayer, Michael Michele as Judy Spears, Shalom Harlow as Judy Green, Robert Klein as Phillip Warren and Bebe Neuwirth as Lana. Andie is the How-To girl at Composure magazine. Michelle and Jeannie are her co-workers and best friends. Michelle has just broken up with a guy after 10 days and doesn't know what she's doing wrong because everything starts out right but then ends up with her being dumped. But when she's telling Jeannie and Andie about the guy they're surprised she lasted as long as she did because she does things that are horrible to a guy like calling and telling him everything you ate that day, using baby talk, putting feminine products in his bathroom, etc. So, during the staff meeting when Lana asks who will use Michelle's pain to write an article, instead of letting someone else do it, Andie volunteers to do a reverse how-to article on how to lose a guy instead of keep a guy. Meanwhile across town, Phillip Warren's advertising agency just got a tip that the DeLauer's who control 70% of the diamond industry are shopping for new advertisers and Benjamin Barry wants the account because he was the first person that got the tip. But, while he is great with athletic gear and beer, Phillip feels that the girls, the Judys, Spears and Green, sell luxury better. Benjamin makes a bet that getting someone to buy a diamond is as easy as getting a woman to fall in love with you. He says he can get any available, straight, single woman to fall in love with him in 10 days. Spears says she will pick someone from the restaurant and she picks Andie. What Benjamin doesn't know is that Spears and Green met with Lana to talk about advertising in Composure just that morning and she introduced Andie and told them how she was going to go on a date with a guy and then flip the switch and drive him away. She thinks they'll win the bet. It's a very funny movie.

TV: The Women

The Women is a re-make of a 1939 movie. I haven't seen the old version but hope to someday. The Women has an all female cast! Plus, most of the people working behind the scenes are women. It stars some incredible women: Meg Ryan as Mary Haines, Eva Mendez as Crystal Lewis - the other woman, Debra Messing as Edie, Bette Midler, Cloris Leachman as Mary's maid, Candice Bergen as Mary's mother, Ana Gasteyer as Crystal's coworker and roommate, Carrie Fisher as a gossip writer, Annette Bening as Sylvia, Jada Pinkett Smith as an author, and India Ennenga plays the daughter, Molly Haines. These ladies are high society ladies. Mary Haines is having a big luncheon and she tells Sylvia not to be late as she usually is. Sylvia goes to Saks 5th Avenue to get a manicure and the manicurist is running her mouth about her friend, Crystal Allen, who works behind the perfume counter and is having an affair with some man who is always in the newspaper in the business section...what is his name...I can never remember his name...oh yeah...Haines...Steven Haines. Of course, Sylvia knows this is Mary's husband so she has to decide if she should tell her or not and how to tell her. Mary kicks Steven out of the house and after a little self-meditation and whatnot, she decides that she wants to live for herself....she has always wanted to design her own clothes so she starts a small collection. It's really cool. It's a pretty good movie.

TV: Trading Places

I love the movie Trading Places. It stars Dan Akroyd as Louis and Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine. It also stars Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denholm Elliott, Philip Bosco, Bill Cobbs  and James Belushi. Ameche and Bellamy play the Duke Brothers. They work on wall street with commodities trading. One bets the other that the environment plays a big part on how you live. He says that a person who grew up on the streets would act right if given the chance to live in high society and that if a high society person found themselves with no money, no friends, no home, no job, etc., that they would take to crime. Louis is engaged to the Dukes' niece. He works for them, so they decide to trade places between him and this low-life Billy Ray Valentine. The results are hilarious. There is a little nudity and bad language in this movie.

TV: Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

Rosalee Futch (Kate Bosworth) and her best friend Cathy Feeley (Gennifer Goodwin) work at the Piggly Wiggly. Their best guy friend, Pete Monash (Topher Grace) is the assistant manager. He frequently gets store awards like employee of the month. Tad gets in the tabloids because of his bad boy photos and his agents, Richard Levy the Driven (Nathan Lane) and Richard Levy the Shameless (Sean Hayes) set up the Win-a-Date contest. The girls find out that Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel) is raising money for a children's charity by selecting one girl to go on a date with him. Rosalee wins and after meeting her, Tad realizes that his priorities are badly out of whack, and he moves to West Virginia for a while so her good morals can rub off on him. Pete, secretly madly in love with Rosalee, is very jealous. Meanwhile, Angelica (Kathryn Hahn), the bartender at their local hangout has a huge crush on Pete that everyone except Pete sees. Gary Cole, Stephen Tobolowsky, Octavia Spencer and Amy Smart are also in the movie.

TV: Rumor Has It

I just watched Rumor Has It. This is a really funny movie. Jennifer Aniston plays Sarah Huttinger. Her mother's mother, Katharine Richelieu is played by Shirley MacLaine. Her fiance, Jeff Daly, is played by Mark Ruffalo. Kevin Costner plays Beau Burroughs. Kathy Bates plays Aunt Mitsy, who is just a good friend of Sarah's mom. Sarah's mom died when she was 9. Sarah comes home for her sister's wedding. At the wedding, she finds out that her mom ran off for a few days right before her wedding. Jeff wonders if she ever did the math and realized that her mom and dad's anniversary was less than 9 months before she was born. So then she asks her mother's mother (who hates to be called "grandma") if her mom had had a fling while she was in Cabo.  Sarah decides that maybe Aunt Mitsy can give her some info. She finds out that aside from her dad, the only person her mother ever liked was Beau Burroughs. Then Aunt Mitsy shows her Beau's picture in the yearbook and she also sees the picture of another guy, Charles Webb. She knows that name sounds familiar. Aunt Mitsy says he was the celebrity of their class because he wrote a book that became a movie and she starts describing the movie and all of a sudden she and Sarah simultaneouly realize that the book and movie are about Sarah's mother and grandmother. So, Sarah goes in search of Beau Burroughs to see if maybe he is her dad. The whole movie is really funny. Well worth watching!

TV: Last Chance Harvey

Another movie I watched this week was Last Chance Harvey. It stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Dustin as Harvey misses his flight home from his daughter's wedding and so he goes to the airport lounge. Thompson's Kate does PR for the airport interviewing people as they come and go from their flights. She had tried to interview Harvey when he heads for his plane but he was in a hurry and blew her off. Now, he sees her on break in the lounge and he apologizes for being rude. They talk and end up spending time together.  Very cute movie. Hoffman and Thompson both also co-starred in Stranger Than Fiction, another of my favorite movies. I'll tell you about it soon. Kathy Baker is also in this movie. Richard Schiff plays Harvey's boss. He was also in I Am Sam as the prosecuting attorney.

TV: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Another old movie I watched this week was the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. This is a drama about how this generation of girls bonded and helped each other through rough times and how it affected their offspring. It stars Sandra Bullock, Maggie Smith, Ellen Burstyn, Ashley Judd, James Garner, and many others. It's a very good dramatic movie.

TV: P.S. I Love You

Another movie I watched this week is P. S. I Love You. It stars Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick Jr. and Kathy Bates. Gerard plays Jerry Kennedy who dies of a brain tumor but he isn't ready to say goodbye, so he writes Holly (Swank), his wife, several letters to be delivered after he's gone. It's a sad drama but it is kind of cool too, because she travels to Ireland and the countryside is beautiful and she also gets to start her own company designing shoes.

TV: Mean Girls & Shallow Hal

I have been watching some of my older movies lately. Yesterday, I re-watched Mamma Mia because the music has been going through my head all week. After watching that I remembered that Amanda Seyfried, who plays Sophie, the girl who is getting married in Mamma Mia, was also in Mean Girls. So, I decided to watch Mean Girls. It's a cute movie about this girl who has been homeschooled for 16 years (Lindsay Lohan) who comes to the states and goes to school. She has trouble making any friends the first day. The second day, the Plastics, a clicque of 3 of the most popular girls at school, invite her to eat lunch with them, and trouble starts brewing as she because "mean" like them. It's a cute movie for teen girls and has a happy ending. Amanda Seyfried is the "stupid" girl in the Plastics and their leader is played by another favorite actress, Rachel McAdams.

I also watched Shallow Hal this week. This is a comedy. Jack Black plays Hal, who is very shallow, until he gets trapped in the elevator with Tony Robbins one day.  Since they are stuck for a long time, Tony and Hal talk and Tony realizes that Hal is brainwashed into believing that only outer beauty is important. He reconditions Hal to see people's true "heart" beauty, so even ladies who are less than physically attractive but who have a beautiful heart look like models to him.  His friend Mauricio, played by Jason Alexander is disgusted by this because he has his own deformity that makes him only like physically perfect girls. Very cute, funny movie!

TV: A Cinderella Story & Mamma Mia!

Ok, so last night, I watched A Cinderella Story. This is a really funny movie. It's fun for the whole family. It's a "Cinderella" story with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. The step-sisters are hilarious with each other and the step-mom is ridiculously funny. Hilary did a music video with her sister Hailey of the song "Our Lips Are Sealed".  It's just a really cute, funny movie! Click here to see it on IMDB (Internet Movie Database)!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356470/

I also watched Mamma Mia. This is a cute story, too, about a girl who is getting married, and she knows her father is one of three possible men and she invites all three of them to her wedding. It's based on a famous Broadway musical. The music is really good. Four of my favorite songs are Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Take a Chance on Me, and I Have a Dream. There are several other songs that I know I've heard before (outside of this movie). I like this movie. It's scenery is beautiful. The only thing I don't like about this movie is that one of the possible fathers comes out of the closet.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795421/

TV: Paul Blart: Mall Cop

I watched a good movie last night. Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Kevin James plays a security officer at a mall. He is a stocky man who sort of "marches to the beat of his own drum" so to say. Anyhow, a group of criminals try to take over the mall at closing time on Black Friday and it's up to Paul Blart to save the day. There are some really funny scenes and some interesting twists and turns. But, it is a very good movie. There is one bad scene in the movie where he drinks what he thinks is a pitcher of lemonade only to find out that it is a pitcher of Margaritas. He doesn't usually drink and he has a bad reaction to the Margaritas.  It is a good scene in that it shows how out of character you become when you drink! Don't drink alcoholic beverages.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1114740/

Tomes & TV: Sybil

I watched Sybil last night. It stars Joanne Woodward and Sally Field. It is very well done. It's based on the true story of a woman (Sybil isn't her real name) who had over 10 different (multiple) personalities.

There has been at least one other version of this movie, but this is my favorite.

I have a copy of the book that this movie is based on. I would like to read it  when I get time.

Tastes, Tomes, and Tunes

I'm TP. I may talk about food (tastes), books (tomes), or music (tunes). I also might talk about TV. You never know. But, these are my preferences, my opinions. Please keep any comments clean.

I'm a Christian and want to honor God in everything I say and do. I apologize if I offend anyone thru my words, but you are free to do your own blog.

If you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior and want to know how to know Him, click here.