She Said . . .

Not alot until now! Jeff and I had been talking about doing this blog thing for some time and obviously, he finally did something about it. While we both enjoy movies; watching them, discussing them, picking them apart technically, promoting the truly exceptional ones that don't get much hype - I have fallen (way) short of getting my views onto the blog.

That ends today! For a couple of good reasons: 1) I enjoy reading what "critics" have to say about films I have seen or am considering seeing and 2) the Milwaukee International Film Festival (MIFF) starts later this month. On the first point, critics are just people who get paid for their opinions and sometimes I have to wonder why they get paid - like all those critics who raved about "Eyes Wide Shut" (I always refer to it as Eyes Wide Shit - because that's what it was). And of course, when I agree with a critic's review, I find that person to be brilliant (and they deserve to be paid). And Jeff and I don't always agree on films . . . he tends to gravitate to technical issues faster than I do (though I am the one who catches stupid editing mistakes) and I have to bring him back to the main point which is "but did it entertain you?" just to see if he actually liked the film.

Let me state that a film must first entertain me. That doesn't mean I have to be giddy with laughter (which is pretty tough since we rarely do comedies), it means the film had to grab my attention and leave me wanting more. I need to leave the theater wondering what happens to the characters after the movie story ends. I want to know more about the characters, I want to see other movies by the actors in the film because they had terrific performances, I need to get a book on the subject because it leaves me with a new facination for the subject matter. If a movie hits these points, then I know it has entertained me. The ultimate goal.

As for the second point, MIFF is in its 5th year of presenting films to a hungry Milwaukee market. This will be our second year of attending the festival and next year we plan on taking vacation so we can take in even more films. We spent a couple of hours this morning scheduling the films we want to see on our calendars - no small feat since we are having to work around work schedules, decide which movies we want to see together - and apart, and trying to figure out which films our out of town guests will want to see.

So pay attention, from here on out you'll get my opinions about the movies we see. I'll be curious to hear from you and invite comments about my "reviews". Oh, by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed "Death at a Funeral" and give it 4 1/2 movie stubs.