Far from the Maddening Crowd...: Must Love Dogs & Aloha!

Current mood: good

So, had a dinner & a movie tonight w/ a friend & we ended up watching "Must Love Dogs"...it was a total date/ chick flick & of course, I loved it...here are the resasons why I ended up loving it...

1. Captain Von Trapp aka Christoper Plummer from "The Sound of Music" is in the movie as Diane Ladd's dad...it's like my fave musical b/c I feel like I've grown up to the soundtrack of that movie...

2. Rizzo from "Grease" aka Stockard Channing is in the movie & that's my second favorite musical growing up & she plays this trailer trash, big-haired, fake & bake tangerine orange tanned woman that wears A LOT of turquoisejewelry in the film who dates of course, Capt. Von Trapp...a riot...

3. John Cusak is always a good idea in a romantic comedy & he always does good in that self-effacing, everyday/ good guy kind of role...it's his specialty, his bread & butter type of acting...he makes it look easy...also, I think I've had a crush on him ever since both "Say Anything" & "The Sure Thing" (remember that early Rob Reiner movie? Rob Reiner has me hooked on these type of movies since then, to "When Harry Met Sally..." to a new film set in SF that has Reese Witherspoon & Mark Ruffalo in it, can't wait for that one, I just saw the preview of it tonight but forgot the title)...so, I'm biased ;) I do love nice guys & I never believed they finish last...

4. Diane Ladd is a lovely actress, she doesn't overplay the role...even though really this is a fantasy movie & you know there will be a happy ending, you can't help but like her & root for her b/c she keeps the performance of her character very realistic not at all too cutesy which would've been like sugar overload, you know? I've liked her ever since I watched "A Little Romance" when she was like a 13 year old actress...as she was running around Paris & Italy in that movie, I vicariously was like traveling in that movie with her when I first saw it when I was younger...the whole kissing in a gondola while you past one of the bridges has got to be the sweetest scenes in cinema :

5. The make funny references that are topical...like John Cusack's lawyer friend in the movie shows a photo of an older woman that's interested in him & he says, "Now that's a 'cougar'!"...cracked me up b/c that term has been a topic of conversation for me & my single friends lately...if you don't know what the new slang term "Cougar" means...go google it...ha! Also, the things they have to say about internet dating too seem to be true...how most aren't presenting their real selves at first just a fantasy of who they want to be or of what they think someone else wants them to be...that's why the internet is fine for initating meeting someone but in the end the only real way to get to know someone is actually spend ol' fashioned face-to-face time with them...I think that's good solid advice...so, basically, telling us to turn off the computers & just jump on out there...baha!

6. They actually showed a lil' of my peeps culture in a short scene...here's the set-up, Diane Lane is a preschool teacher; so in this particular scene the kids are dancing & they are "tinikling"...I was the only one in the theater busting up laughing over that...tinikling if those of you who don't know is a Filipino folk dance where the dancers dance in between two sticks while two other people hold them & keep time by banging them on the ground & also clicking them together...in this scene they just banged them on the ground, probably b/c they didn't want to hurt the child actors legs & be liable for like accidents but what cracked me up more was that they were playing the actual "tinikling" traditional song for the background music...score one giant gold star from me to the screenwriters for being culturally knowledgeable enough to stick that in ...hey, I'll take anything...I thought that was a nice treat to see some of that in there...

So, as you can tell I enjoyed that movie but then I'm a connosieur of romantic comedies & yes, if that makes me a full fledged girly girl then so be it...ha! I think that's no big secret that I like mush & I'm a sucker for it...

Anyway, I'm getting ready to go to the Aloha/ 808 State this week...I'll be gone for almost a week. When I get back, I'll relay my adventures. So the only thing I have on my agenda is working on getting tanner, wear flip flops everyday, drink a hurricane or two in a pineapple & just relax, relax, relax before I have to return back to the office again...sounds like a good plan, right?