Love. Blood. Kryptonite.

Leighton & Sabine: ***

Sabine and I drove up to Park Ridge last night (Mon, 5/21) to see the premiere of the indie movie Geoff has been working on. Uncle Stan and Aunt Dawn and Uncle Mike and Aunt Maggie were all there, too. It was a lot of fun. The movie was written, directed, and made by students at Oak Park-River Forrest High School. They did a really good job, too.

Geoff did scoring for the movie and worked with the directors on selecting songs/bands for the soundtrack, too. It was great seeing Geoff's name up on the big screen in the opening credits. His songs appear on the soundtrack CD, as well.

Second Chance, Performed by Geoff Shell
In Flames, Performed by Geoff Shell
Loss of Hope, Performed by Geoff Shell
Attack, Performed by Geoff Shell

Afterwards, Geoff, Yukiko, Sabine and I hung out at the cast/crew celebration at a nearby sushi house. It was a lot of fun. Yukiko took a few pictures during the night, so we'll try to get those posted to the main page soon.

Love. Blood. Kryptonite. trailer...

Volver (2006)

NetFlix Rental
Leighton & Sabine: ** 1/2, Mom: * (?)

There was so much buzz about this movie, especially back when the Oscars happened. We decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it ended up not being the movie we were expecting. Both the description about the movie and the trailer made it seem like it was going to be a much more light-hearted movie. We were expecting it to be a little more off-beat or something. Maybe something like Rosanna's Grave. There ended up being a lot more drama in this than we expected. After the fact, I think we still kind of liked it for what it was. Mom had a different experience. I'll add her comments a little later.

Here are Mom's thoughts on the movie...since it may be a bit "spoilery", I'll use white font where appropriate. If you want to read all of it, click and drag your mouse like you are highlighting text in Word.

What a horrible movie!!!! I think it was so misrepresented in the synopsis. ...Grandma had such a small part to play and wasn’t even a spirit. And a murder to start things off.... Where was the comedic aspect?? Granted I don’t understand or speak Spanish, but why did Cruz get such rave reviews??? I’m lost.

Volver trailer...