What I do instead of housework

So there are movies in the world and somebody has to watch them, right? I'm doing a small part of taking care of that lately. This weekend I enjoyed Did You Hear About the Morgans? It was movie in the mail and I enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure it won't bring about world peace or cure hunger, but I'm OK with that. I laughed. It's enough. It reminded me a little bit of The Proposal...fish-out-of-water New Yorkers out in the wilds, various run-ins with locals and exotic wildlife. This one has Wilford Brimley instead of Betty White, and they're in Wyoming instead of Alaska, and it's Hugh Grant instead of Ryan Reynolds, and this one's more like Green Acres meets the Witness Protection Program. This one also has the very cool sheriff Sam Elliott and his wife/deputy Mary Steenburgen who both look like they were born in Western wear. Fans of the witty banter should like this one.

And then, when I discovered how simple it was to watch instantly, I took a chance on Bottle Shock. Have you ever heard of Bottle Shock? Maybe. I think I saw an ad in a magazine. I was searching for movies by actors that I like and this one has Mr. Alan Rickman in it as a snooty British wine seller in Paris who decides to increase traffic to his Wine Academy by holding a blind taste test of French and American wines. It was 1976. No one drank American wines. It was impossible to imagine that wines made by yokels in California could defeat the masters in France. He traveled to Napa Valley to find the wines and was surprised by the quality. And it's based on a true story and you can probably guess how the taste test turned out. Bill Pullman and the new Captain Kirk are a father and son running Chateau Montelena in Napa but I was mainly watching for Alan Rickman. A word of caution: it's a period movie and I sorta find some of the clothes and hair of the 70s painful to look at. Give me huge shoulder pads and powder blue Reeboks anytime and keep your bell bottoms and super-tight t-shirts. Still, I might be in the minority there. If you like a little history with your movie, enjoy the scenery of Napa Valley vineyards and Paris, or could listen to Alan Rickman read the phone book, you should try this one.