The Crucible (1996), Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), and Less than Zero (1987) (nat)

Yep, I spent all day Saturday watching movies in my bed. Yay!

I should have picked better movies but . . . ok, so I didn't actually choose the later two. I just didn't feel like getting up to find something else to watch and they came on after The Crucible, which I did choose (but from limited TV watching).

I'd never seen The Crucible. I liked it just fine. I'm guessing it was pretty faithful to the play, although I've never read that either (hmmmm, things to put on the to-read list--I may even own it . . . ). We get Daniel Day-Lewis against the besotted and mean Winona Ryder, the latter of whom cries "witch" in order to win him over. And, surprise surprise, that doesn't so much work out for her. She gets herself in deep and can't so much get out of the mess she's caused. I'm happy with the ending of this one--I was set to be angry with the whole thing had he gone through with the deal at the end. The movie makes me want to make a "Mean Girls" syllabus--wouldn't that be fun? This one and Taming of the Shrew and Mean Girls . . . that's as far as I got with that since I don't actually have to make a syllabus.

I've seen Sleeping with the Enemy too many times before. My sister loved it--that and Peggy Sue Got Married. Julia Roberts (Laura) is the abused privileged housewife to the evil, towel straightening Patrick Bergin (Martin). She fakes her drowning and moves to Iowa where she meets supposed-t0-be-cute drama professor Kevin Anderson (Ben). Martin finds them, of course, and that's a problem, of course. My only new reaction is that Ben's hair is way too bushy and Martin's moustache is way creepy. . . way to go make-up department (child-like uncontrollable hair=good guy, sinister facial hair=bad guy).

Less than Zero was a new one for me. I wouldn't bother watching it. Not even a minute of it. Way boring, way stereotypical "cool 80s, don't do drugs" movie. There is actually a visible "I shouldn't do cocaine because these people with whom I've been doing cocaine for fewer than 6 months are stupid" moment. That moment is not preceded by any other sort of character change. Apparently the movie has little to do with the book and Ellis wouldn't see it until recently because of the "DARE" message the filmmakers went with. Anyway, it's nowhere near as graphic as I'm sure the book is. There was the question of whether I'd seen an edited version since it was on FMC. But, nope. Thanks to the internet, I could find the "graphic sex scene" and it's not so much graphic. You can see, sort of, the point at which Jami Gertz's torso meets Andrew McCarthy's as she straddles him but everything is obscured by the leather jacket she is wearing (there was more shown in "Californication", many times over). The only other part is Robert Downey Jr. giving a guy a blow job--which you can't see at all and is supposed to be this grand revelation of his complete downfall (except James Spader has been saying all movie that Downey "works for him" while being surrounded by lots of buff blonde men . . . . not so much with the subtle or the surprise).