10 Cloverfield Lane- Movie Review

Aaron has been wanting to see 10 Cloverfield Lane for quite sometime now and we finally got the chance to rent it. We both really liked Cloverfield and are fans of J.J.Abrams, so that made us very excited to see a 'sequel'.  I love me some IMDB and I tried really hard to not check this movie out before watching it. I just couldn't figure out what it was about.

10 Cloverfield Lane started off normal enough. Girl gets in crash and wakes up in a foreign place. But something happened while she was unconscious, the whole world went to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. When Michelle wakes up, it appears she has been taken care of from her accident through bandages and and an IV. Creepy, but nice I guess. Then, the movie just got eerier (is that a word?) from there. John Goodman's character, Howard, is quite complicated and you never quite get the full scope. Essentially, Howard realized long ago that aliens would be invading and contaminating the air, so he built an underground bunker.   Throughout the movie, 3 people live in the bunker: Howard, Michelle and Emmett, who is a friend of Howard's.

As time goes by, Michelle seems to find peace with her situation. That is, until little things don't add up. She finds traces that another female was once in the bunker, and that Howard has been telling her lies. Is he the reason she crashed in the first place? Michelle and Emmett come up with a plan to escape the bunker. Not everything goes according to plan, of course, but Michelle makes her way to the outside world.

Here is where the movie went south for me. I was interested all the way until when the aliens appear. Maybe it's really hard to dazzle me with the image of an alien, I am not sure, but the aliens are what tanked the movie. It was suspenseful yes, but an alien that sprays a poisonous gas and a huge mother ship that just happens to be right outside from the underground bunker.....not interested.

Aaron happened to really like the movie, although his pros are more of the story aspect of John Goodman's character, Howard, than they are of the aliens. We discuss whether he is a good guy or bad guy- which I guess is up for interpretation... see below :)

What do you think? Is Howard a good guy, or slightly messed up in the head?

Last Weekend

The last weekend of July, and we survived. It has been incredibly hot lately, see here, so most of our outdoor time takes place in the morning or just before bed. 

Most of Friday was spent doing chores, playing inside and discussing plans for the different rooms in our house. I am lucky enough to be able to work 4-10s at my job, so I have every Friday off! We try to use that time for errands especially since most places are less crowded on a weekday. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent with friends and family including celebrating my dad's birthday.  In the early hours, we walked to the park. Luke got to ride his Ziggle, he is getting pretty good at it.

Playing at the park is serious business...

These kids LOVE slides...

 

These two...love it.

 

 

 

We got some Bepa and Amatchi time too. That is what the kids call my dad (Bepa because Luke couldn't say Grandpa when he was younger) and step-mom (Amatchi is the Basque word for Grandma). My brother was there too, he is a rockstar tennis player for Cal. 

We did a little swimming and then played inside, ate dinner, opened presents and went to the park by their house.

Who wouldn't want to shoot poppers at innocent kids for their birthday...no kids were harmed during this game :)

 

Then, of course, we went to the park in their neighborhood too.

Age is just a number :)

 

We finished our visit with a few races on the basketball court.

 

 

We also got to visit with our best friends, their kids (who just so happen to be our kids' best friends) and Aaron's brother. Here are the four kids, who at the end of August will be 4,3,2 and 1! All of the kids except Luke have birthdays this month!

 

The three 'big' kids having some pizza

 

Not sure how or why pizza sauce ended up on her forehead, ha!

 

Finishing off dinner with watermelon!

 

 

Uncle Scott was a trooper and pushed these kids around in the car for hours! 

 

They played on this car until it was way past bedtime. It was so cute to watch them all play together. We even had some fun spraying them with the hose, they loved it of course.

Looking forward to this weekend with the Olympics and a joint birthday party for 2 of my favorite kids!