Sweeneyville

#17- The Sting
Suggested by Sweeneyville reader Chris Sturgis

You did suggest this to me, didn't you? Somewhere? Sometime?

Chris was the repo man that came to take away my brand new Camaro back in 1999. I convinced him to arm wrestle me for it, and since I was hitting the BYU weight room 3 times a week, I won the contest and he left my apartment complex parking lot empty handed. Okay, in all seriousness, Chris is a friend I met out at BYU my freshman year. He is the one guy from freshman year @ BYU that I still keep in touch with. Let's see, he served a mission to Japan, he loves to golf, he is from Methuen, Massachusettes and was the first person to really teach me about "fluff" marshmallow cream. He just started school again to get his MBA, he is a darn good handyman, he loves his adorable neices and attention single ladies, he is available! Had to put that in there since he is becoming a menace to society by not being married in his old age. Just trying to help, Chris! :) He is a great friend, very funny and if I ever make it to Boston, my tour guide awaits me!

The Sting
Overall: 8/10
Deductions: length, is it a requirement that all goons and thugs be incredibly unattractive?
Bonus Points: Illustrated page titles helped me follow along quite nicely, Dana Elcar from MacGyver! And of course, Robert Redford. Oh, Robert Redford! :)

This movie kind of reminded me of Ocean's 11 or even Matchstick Men. (I actually love the movie Matchstick Men. The ending to that one blew my mind.) But getting back to the matter at hand, I really enjoyed this movie. Again, I was a little worried at the beginning that I wouldn't be able to follow the story or what was going on, but I caught on just fine. I am still not as good with the names of everyone, several times Jacob and I would ask each other "Who's Salino?" or another name we couldn't remember, but overall you knew the big characters. I was actually surprised with how it ended because I thought they would go for a some sort of crazy triple-cross or something in the end, but it still was pretty good. Overall it had good dialogue, a fair amount of action, it flowed good, it had some humorous moments and watching how they set up Lonnigan for the big payout was fun. Plus mobsters are always a good time, am I right?


#18- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Suggested by Sweeneyville reader The Entire World

Who am I to go against the suggestion of The Entire World and not see this movie? Actually, since I officially started reading all of Harry Potter books this summer, I was determined to be done with them by the time this movie came out so I could be super excited about seeing it in the theater. And it did not disappoint me!

Harry Potter 7
Overall: 9.5/10
Deductions: guy behind me in the theater that gave his opinion of every movie preview, I cried twice, music could have played a bigger role
Bonus Points: I was wearing my totally awesome Gryffindor Quidditch Team Seeker shirt at the movie. Boo-yah!



What is there to say? This movie was amazing! Especially if you read the book, because then you knew exactly what was going to happen in key parts and were much less scared. Always a plus :) From the very opening scene though, I felt so much emotion. I felt like I knew these characters so well and watched them all grow up, but I could feel the end was coming and was surprised by the intensity of my feelings! I cried when Harry saw his parents' grave and I heard many, many sniffles when Dobby was buried. It wasn't just me- so there! I thought they ended it in a great spot too. Nicely done. The mark of a truly great movie for me is when I don't take notice of the time. At all. Not even once. I was so sucked in to this one, it could have ended the next day and I wouldn't have noticed. Plus my super hot husband went and saw it with me, so I wasn't really in a hurry to go anywhere. Being my arm candy gets a little tiring, but he never complains :)