"Animal House"

The fourth and final movie I am going to blog about tonight is "Animal House." The classic college frat movie that all followers strive to emulate. I have to think that had I been seeing this for the first time without seeing the others that have followed, I may have had more appreciation for the movie. As it was, I was mildly entertained and enjoyed seeing where such famous quotes, such as "Thank you sir, may I have another" stem from! Also, seeing younger versions of Donald Sutherland and Kevin Bacon was enjoyable.

Run time: 109 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 3 1/2

Join us again next time when our movie will be the awesome "Apollo 13" with the fabulous Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon & Gary Sinise. And with a bit part for a "Mary Kate Schellhardt" as one of Tom Hanks' daughters. We don't know her, but think it's cool that our last name is in the credits of such a great movie!! : )

"The Amityville Horror" Remake

Our third movie was the 2005 remake of "The Amityville Horror." Based on a true story about the DaFeo family who was brutally murdered in their home on Long Island by their oldest son and then George and Kathy Lutz but the home a year later and experience similar issues as the DaFeo's.

While this remake is not as good as the original and frankly gets a bit gory and far-fetched towards the end, it is still a decent horror movie. I also think that having Josh Brolin as the lead role of George Lutz in this film after James Brolin starred in the same role in the original would have been a better choice than Ryan Reynolds, but maybe that's just me. : )

Run Time: 89 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 3

"An American Tail"

Our second film was the animated "An American Tale." This is the story of a family of mice that immigrate to America from Russia, but while on their seaward journey, lose their son Fievel.

Fievel goes on to find his way without his family running into all sorts of crazy characters from Omri the pigeon to Tiger a scary looking cat, who turns out to be a vegetarian. Tiger becomes one of Fievel's best friends and biggest allies as they fight back against the tyrant cats and eventually reunite Fievel with his family.

Run Time: 81 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 3

"American Psycho"

Over the last couple of weekends, we got an additional 4 films watched, but couldn't find the motivation to blog about them. The first such film was "American Psycho" starring Christian Bale as the classic Jekkyl and Hyde character.

A wall street yuppie by day and serial killer by night, Bale plays the classic "things are not always as they seem" role. While a bit gory for my taste, the movie was tolerable even if a bit campy, although, this may have been by design...

Run Time: 102 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 2 1/2

"American Wedding"

,
Our last movie of the weekend and of the series was "American Wedding," where we join Jim and Michelle as they get engaged and plan their wedding. This movie includes jokes in many of the same veins as the first 2, sex-related, poop jokes and the ever-popular embarrassing personal situations.

While this is a funny movie, it tries at times to be romantic, which detracts from the overall feeling of these films. What made the original "American Pie" so great, was that they made no apologies and attempted to provide no moral overtones. It was just a comedy for comedy's sake.

Run Time: 104 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 3 1/4

Tune in again next time when your movie will be "American Psycho" with Christian Bale.

"American Pie 2"

Next we watched "American Pie 2." This movie continues one year after we left Jim, Michelle, Stiffler, Finch, Nadia, Oz, Heather, Kevin, Vicky and Jessica as they are completing their 1st year of college.

The premise of this movie is similar to the first with the quest for sex highly prevalent. In this movie we learn of the "rule of 3" and poor Jim again suffers more than anyone on his journey to realization that he is in love with band geek Michelle.

All in all an enjoyable movie, even if it is not as good as the first.

Run Time: 105 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 4

"American Pie"

Well, over the long Labor Day weekend, we ended up getting the "American Pie" trilogy watched. We spent the day on Saturday getting ready for and attending the first Husker game of the season...GO BIG RED!! And after all that, decided to spend a lazy Sunday evening at home watching movies.

The first movie was "American Pie." A classic tale of high schoolers and the quest to lose their virginity before graduation, with as many things going wrong as possible. Mike and I realized quite soon into the movie that we are not as young as we used to be, when our comments to each other were about how this movie does not set a very good example for high schoolers, what with the sex and drinking... : )

We also realized we were getting old when we chatted about how this was the movie that we rented for our first date nearly 10 years ago!! My how the time flies!!

Anyway, this is still a gut-wrenchingly funny movie which spawned a whole slew of catchphrases for our generation. I will never look at a flute the same way again!! ; )

Run Time: 96 minutes

Schellhardt Stars: 4 1/2