Another movie night!

Now halfway through our vacation week, Kates and I knocked off two more movies last night ...

... Over The Hedge. Watched it.

... Prairie Home Companion. Cross it off.

... We watched Prairie Home Companion first. Didn't like it much ... Watching the trailers and the all-star cast, my hopes were high. Plus, I seem to remember Lindsay Lohan getting some kudos for her role as the daughter of Meryl Streep's character, the floozy Yolanda ... then again, I'm not as familiar with Robert Altman's work, Garrison Keillor or even the legend of the Prairie Home Companion radio shows ... Kates on the other hand, I learned later, had a better idea of what we were getting into, having listened to the radio show with her parents as a child ...

... What I expected to be a quirky but flowing, wholesome story about some radio show turned out to be a winding storyline that often made no sense to me ... As a duo John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson were quite fun to watch, and Virginia Madsen's came off well, despite her mysterious, sometime out-of-place character ... The rest? Forget it ...

Next up. Over The Hedge.

... I went into this one with low expectations. I was well aware that Ben Folds -- whose musical genius I, of course, worship -- had a large part in the film's music. So with that in mind -- as well as the all-star cast involved in this film, too -- I wanted to really enjoy it, but I was too fearful of having unrealistic hopes and having the movie be a flop. So, yeah, low expectations.

... And well ...

... I ended up enjoying it. It's not a spectacular film ... but it's definitely worth seeing, I think.

... One of my first thoughts looking back on it, is that it often amazes me how these creators come up with these wild, wacky and adventurous -- and extremely entertaining -- tales for animated films. The premise in this one is a family of small creatures -- porcupines, possum, a squirrel, a skunk, and their leader, a turtle -- who wake up from hibernation to find their forest habitat reduced to a suburban subdivision. Enter a conniving raccoon who teaches them how to dig through trash bags and crash backyard barbecues to get their stash ...

All of it -- did I mention the wonderful cast!? -- shapes up for a wonderfully entertaining and charming little family film ...