Well…. the nephew, niece, and I have returned safely from the Hotel Transylvania.  Rather humorous tale how the trip was initiated.  I woke this morning to find a message from my eldest brother who is still down with SPOTTY(?) pneumonia…. honestly, has anyone ever heard of spotty pneumonia?  The message was sent at 3:43AM asking if I would take Noah since there was no way that Jeff would be able to.  While at work, my brother-in-law was in and somehow I volunteered to take his oldest along.  It was fine, one more would not hurt.

The show was actually really cute.  It centered around Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) efforts to protect his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) from the evil world of humans.  While still an infant, Mavis’ father build a hotel at which only the monster kind could check in.  On the eve of Miss Dracula’s 118th birthday, Jonathan,a young human male (Andy Samberg), happens across the hotel and the story takes off.   How long can a parent protect their child from the world outside?  Could monsters live amongst humans after 118+ years?  Just two of the themes presented in this entertaining little movie.

Some clever bits scattered throughout most notably the cavalcade of misunderstood creatures…. Frankenstein (Kevin James) and his bride Eunice (Fran Drescher); the Invisible Man  (who is a terrible charades player… David Spade); Big Bad, his wife Wanda, and their brood; Quasimodo; the Mummy; and countless others.  I found myself just attempting to recognize as many as I could.  Of course, Noah’s favorite part centered around Frankie’s all-powerful flatulence.

There was nothing too scary about the movie (I would say over the age of 5 would be acceptable).  Noah and Kyli both got a kick out of it as did their uncle.  At least, we all went to the facilities before the movie started and were able to sit through the entire thing.  Of course, that changed when we had to stop at Taco Smell to get a take out for a pregnant mother 😉

Next on the agenda, Skyfall with Alex…. did not know he was a James Bond fan.

While my mom has had the kids this week, we managed to fit in 2 movies of opposite genres: the suspense / horror flick,  Prom Night (2008 remake of the 1980 film), vs. the silly comedy, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, Adam Sandler’s new movie.  Suspense / Horror wins this time, hands down.

Prom Night  – an easy, old fashioned slasher movie.  I really liked that the villian and his motivations were unveiled in the first scenes of the movie.  I didn’t have to waste the rest of the movie worrying about what was trying to get the victims, why, and how many of them the victims needed to eliminate.  Predictable yet startling – don’t expect too much and you’ll have fun.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan – ok, I really wasn’t expecting much from this movie.  The previews had basically said it all.  A former Israeli terrorist fighter is looking for a fresh start and decides to become a hairdresser in the US.  The movie is what it is – a really dumb comedy.  As crude as Adam Sandler promises to be, you have to have a certain type of sense of humor to enjoy this movie.  I didn’t have a bad time at the movie, but many of the jokes got old before they were done using them and the humor became even raunchier than expected.  While Adam Sandler does have a few worthwhile movies to his credit (Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer are my favorites), this is not one of them.  Oh, well, it was bargain night at the movie theater, so $8 for two of us to see a movie, get 2 pops and some popcorn was well worth it!

I was having a brain freeze today and could not come up with a suitable movie to review… until I read a blog form a friend.  Happy Gilmore is one of the funniest movies involving one of the most boring sports imaginable: GOLF…. UGH!!!!.  Adam Sandler is one of the funniest guys around.  I abhor watching golf…. it is so quiet that that you are just dying to yell out “FIRE” or some other attention grabber.  But this movie makes it hilarious.  My favorite part of the whole movie has got to be when Happy is in a celebrity pro/am tournament.  He was lucky enough to be paired with America’s favorite game show host: Bob Barker former star of The Price is Right.  Happy’s day on the course does not go well.  Bob makes the comment that Happy’s hockey playing could not be worse than his golf game.  Then, the hilarity begins.  Bob Barker gets into a knock-down, drag-out fight.  When it seems that Happy is victorious, he exclaims: “The price is WRONG, B*%#H.”  To which Bob goes into a fit of rage and gives his golf partner a good beating.  After finishing Happy off, Bob returns the favor by saying: “now, you’ve had enough… b*$@h.”  All those days Bob spent boxing in the service must have payed off because the fight actually resembled a choreographed boxing match.  It was one of the highlights of the movie to watch the normally composed game show host lose his cool.  Speaking of boxing matches, Happy’s golf mentor, Chubbs, was played by Carl Weathers who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies.