This weekend saw a return to my movie-watching roots. I haven't been living up to my resident movie critic billing cos I've just been too busy lately. So I've missed a couple shows these past couple of months (and even if I didn't do any reviews). A far cry from my heydays in school when I caught everything under the sun and got ard to more than a few movie marathons (no I'm not talkin abt the infamous one I won) where I'd watch 2-3 back-to-back shows with pple. Plus I'd review them after too!

So anyways this last weekend I got around to 3 movies - Derailed with CJ, Elizabethtown with Rb & Dn and finally Broken Flowers on sunday with my mum.

By some stroke of random hollywood coincidences , Broken Flowers & Elizabethtown both featured road trips by the main character with music prepared by their supporting cast.

The former featured Bill Murray who plays an ageing don juan journeying around the US heartlands in a Ford Taurus to an attempt to find out who amongst his many ex-gfs bore him a son and sent him a mysterious pink letter only twenty years later to tell him about his kid. What ensues is a journey (complete with groovy tunes courtesy of his hilariously curious neighbour Winston) of self-discovery amid a barrel of laughs as only Bill Murray can do. Who else can sit still on a couch for a good minute and not bore the audience, instead eliciting chortles of laughter from his amazing deadpan expressions in ridiculous cirsumstances. Slow I must warn u.. But it's the character and incongruous laughs from this one that make the ride worthwhile.

The latter featured Orlando Bloom as Drew Baylor in a cross-southern US road trip (complete with an amazing spread of music prepared by love interest Kirsten Dunst's stewardess character) with his dad, albeit Baylor Snr was in a cremation jar. This was post-career meltdown as a shoe he designed globally bombed losing his company US$1 Billion and drove him to suicide... With an exercise bike loaded with a kitchen knife true to his creative background. Momentarily stalled by the family's call to do his bit as eldest son on his father's death, he went to retrieve his old man who had passed away in his hometown of Elizabethtown.

En route he meets talkative stewardess played by Dunst, who invigorates him and verbally yanks him back from the pangs of suicide after which he ultimately falls in love with her (duh?). It was wonderful cos of the amazing soundtrack and wonderful leads who had good chemistry. Dunst is a fav of mine both as a thespian and a hot chick; and this movie just emphasised those bases. And gosh her character's roadmap/scrapbook complete with matching music just blew me away.

The story's supposed to be about Baylor getting in touch with his dad & inherently himself... But the movie suffers from a lack of focus (As my 2 companions will testify). In his passionate attempt of doing a great tale of gd ole American self-discovery and the fabled American road trip, Cameron Crowe failed to coalesce all the various threads in the movie... So u kinda leave the cinema ruing the lack of direction....

I left dreaming about how lovely it'd be for an uplifting and quirky girl like that to such a sweet thing for me. Heh.

Last (but actually my 1st movie of the weekend) was Derailed. A plot-driven piece that really surprised me in the end and therein law its brilliance. Thoroughly enjoyed the ride it takes you on. Without giving too much away, I haven't enjoyed a movie like that since The Game. In any case I highly recommend it for all you movie lovers.

It's wonderful to lose yourself for 2 hours and be transported to another world. Nothing beats a good yarn on screen... *grinz*

Well until next time, keep those fantasy sessions going ;)