Some favorites from Amazon

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Rio

Rating: 3 Arthritic Fingers Up Rio, the newly released animated film featuring voice of Jesse Eisenberg (as Blu) and Anne Hathaway (as Jewel)            is a bit too much like Finding Nemo (without the funny character of Ellen Degeneres). The movie was cute, but in the opinion of one very senior citizen (94) and one approaching senior citizenship (none of your business...), and one 40 year old, it was sort of boring.

The story starts with the requisite capture of Blu, one of the last blue Amazon parrots on earth. In fact, Blu is only 1 of 2 known of his species. Unfortunately, Blu lives with his owner (and total devotee Linda). And, since he's lived a totally cushy life, he's never learned to fly.

Linda and Blu get talked into a trip to Rio so that Blu can, ostensibly, continue the species with Jewel (a kind of nasty bird at first). Through many trials and tribulation, including a kidnapping (bird-napping?) plot, Blu learns to fly and is....well, I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it.

Personally, I lost interest in about 30 minutes; Mom was sleeping by minute 10.

There are other animated flicks that I would recommend though for viewing with a senior citizen friend, including the below:

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Bennings

Rating: 10 Arthritic Fingers Up!

 Talk about just the sweetest love story ever and super sexy too (gives the caregiver something to watch at the same time...), The American President is one of our favorite movies ever. What starts off as an adversarial relationship between a lobbyist on The Hill (Sydney Allen Wade played by Benning) turns into a true love story when The President (President Andrew Shepherd played by Douglas) develops feelings for this tough lady.

Recently widowed, the President is running the country with a group of great advisors (including Michael J. Fox) and trying to raise his teenage daughter, Lucy, at the same time. Douglas is a nice guy all around but no nicer than when he takes dating advice from his daughter.

As a mixture of humor and love, one of our favorite parts was when the President tries to buy the lobbyist flowers on his own. Yes, he does own a rose garden but has quite a hard time buying a bouquet of flowers.

This movie is fast enough paced to keep Mom's attention yet was still easy to follow. We both highly recommend it!

If you liked The American President, you might also like: