Delicious Comments on ‘Julie and Julia’

I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the wonderful film Julie & Julia starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep with my good friend and radio personality Liz Lane from The Current several weeks ago.

She asked me my first thoughts post-film and I said beaming, “I am simply inspired to blog and cook!” It’s true, the film does tickle the creative juices in more ways than one.

Together we relished every nuance in this fabulous film in our weekly radio discussion on The Current.

I have here an edited version of that radio commentary. Please excuse the static issue. It’s on the original recording and there isn’t much I can do about it. (I tried!) The phone line was particularly crackly that day – probably due to construction in our area. Ugh!

Audio Commentary:

— Laura J. Bagby

 

‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’: Audio Commentary

Once a week, I tape a radio segment with my friend Liz Lane from The Current FM about the latest movie. I get on the phone line from the comfort of my home and she calls me up from the local radio station studio.  So what you will hear in this MP3 clip isn’t the final on-air version; it’s my version from my phone line.

We both had lots to say about The Time Traveler’s Wife starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Here is the audio clip for your enjoyment.

— Laura J. Bagby

‘Time Traveler’s Wife’: Genetic Wardrobe Malfunction Meets Melodrama

Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana star as two destined lovers, Clare Abshire and Henry DeTamble, who try desperately to nurture a relationship constantly complicated by Henry’s uncontrollable time traveling tendencies.

Henry has learned to live with this genetic disorder since childhood that not only strips him of his present reality, but literally of his clothes as he travels through time. (Can we say constant ‘wardrobe malfunction’?)

But the faithful Clare is becoming increasingly tired of Henry’s sudden and unpredictable disappearances that have caused him to disappear into thin air at the worst of moments. (I say ditto to that.)

‘Julie and Julia’ Sizzles on Screen

Here’s one movie idea that isn’t half-baked. Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, is scrumptious on-screen entertainment!

Writer/Director Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) dishes up a great plot that interweaves two true stories – one about a New York woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who, while working at a dead-end job, gets the crazy idea of cooking up 365 days of Julia Child’s famous recipes and then blogging about them, and the other about how Julia Child (Meryl Streep) went from bored housewife living in Paris to culinary star and American icon.

Spy Pigs: The ‘Force’ is With You

The FBI has a new pet project. And who better to be the next guinea pigs on a government-funded secret ops mission than… well… real, live guinea pigs?

In this first Digital 3-D movie from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, a federally funded crew of animal secret agents known as “G-Force,” trained by Ben (Zack Galifianakis) and his assistant, Marcie (Kelli Garner), has just been tasked with stopping power-hungry businessman Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy) from implementing his mission of world domination. The goal of G-Force is to locate and destroy Saber’s computer program called Saber Sense (also known as Clusterstorm) before Saber gets the chance to activate microchips in his worldwide line of household appliances and turn them into sinister killing machines.

Sandler’s New Low: ‘Funny People’

I attempted a viewing of Adam Sandler’s Funny People today but had to leave the theatre within the first 30 minutes because it was an assault on my values. I had hoped to get a proper review of this new release that just came out at the box office on July 31st, but staying in my seat voluntarily watch

ing and hearing the kind of filth spewing from the screen wasn’t an option for me.

The basic premise answers this question: If you get a second chance on life, would you be a better person? I think it’s a sensational concept, all about changing for the better. Sandler plays a famous comedian (hmm…is this autobiographical?) called George Simmons who finds out he has a very aggressive form of leukemia. He handles the news by deciding to do even more crude stand-up comedy and enlist a fan and budding comedian, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), to help write funny, crass material. Ira and George become friends who eventually help each other out: George helps Ira step into the career of stand-up comedy; Ira helps George deal with his terminal illness. But when George’s illness goes into remission and he gets a second chance on life and love, George begins to evaluate how he has been living.

Perhaps this Judd Apatow film does get better and even cleaner if you stay for the rest. I truly hope so, but honestly I doubt it. I heard more references to male body parts, sexual acts, and potty-mouthed cursing in the first quarter of the film than I cared to ever hear.

I left the movie feeling really depressed. Ironic when the title of this comedy is about people that are supposed to make me laugh.

— Laura J. Bagby