LaurenandLloyd.com

where our wasted time becomes your wasted time

movie

Best Buy

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Over the weekend, Lauren and I went to be confused by Inception. It was a pretty good movie, and the first movie in a while where I liked the ending. But the movie wasn’t the best part.

I’ve been having a hankering for cotton candy for a while now. It started when my parents came up to visit. We took them to Valentino’s Grand Italian Buffet (that’s a 360 degree panorama, go ahead, take a look). In the past, I’ve considered the buffet most notable for it’s ICEE machine. I can actually consume the price of the buffet in ICEE*, so the buffet is always a bargain. This time, however I noticed that they also have fresh spun Cotton Candy at the buffet (I know, it’s like they read my mind). However, because (a) Lauren discouraged it for some reason and (b) I did not actually notice the Cotton Candy until we’d already been there for quite some time and I was more than full, I did not take any.

Anyway, since then I’ve been thinking a lot about Cotton Candy and guess what? They have cotton candy at the movie theatre (this is how they spell it so that you can’t actually remember the website address so you can’t actually see what movies are playing). There are many reasons to love cotton candy, but the best one is that, with the proper humidity, it is possible to make it last forever.

Not yet flffy goodness.

No matter how often you pull cotton candy in half, you always have the same amount left. My favorite amount to eat at any given moment is that wispy little bit that is roughly the size of a silver dollar, weighs as much as a butterfly and, if smashed, takes up as much room as 2 grains of rice.

Sadly, you really can’t keep doing that forever because you inevitably squish some while you pull it apart, and humidity always spoils your fun in the end. If it were not for the humidity, I would insulate our house with Cotton Candy.

Flffy goodness

*Surprisingly enough, this is not a footnote. However, since you’re down here anyway, let me explain. ICEE is actually the singular form, but there is, effectively, no plural form that simply means “more than one” as with most plurals. Instead, two ICEE is denoted as ICEEE, three as ICEEEE and so forth. The asterisk is used to indicate an unknown number of ICEE*.

Just what the red box ordered

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Last week was not a fun week, so I unplugged this weekend. It was fabulous!!

Not so fabulous for Lloyd, since at the time of this writing he has spent 24 waking hours of his weekend in this computer lab, and he’s not done yet.

I did a couple of errands, then sat in my blessed folding papasan chair watching movies on the computer, reading or (shhhh – don’t tell Lloyd) napping. I helped with the occasional little thing, but my main job was to bring him food and drink so he could continue to work like a robot. (Sandwiches and Pepsi, with the occasional restaurant run.)

open

The movies I watched came from a Red Box, the vending-machine things. I had never used one, and was too embarrassed to take a picture while using one, so no photo. I learned that if you want to get a new release like The Proposal, you have to reserve it online first and then pick it up at the machine. Otherwise you stand there shivering outside the Walgreen’s for fifteen minutes going through screen after screen of choices, muttering under your breath like an insane person.

Learn from my mistakes.

End of Days

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Friday was the last day of middle school. Here’s the schedule:

08:00 take attendance
08:05 awards ceremony
09:05 Secondhand Lions
11:00 lunch/access
12:00 closing devotions
12:30 skatezone

In practice, it was a little different. We had about twice as many parents as usual for the awards. I think it’s because we have never had them at the start of the day before, so that was a good idea. We had the parents sit above the students on the bleachers for better heckling. Our teachers didn’t have their act together, so we didn’t get started until 8:15. Oh well.

And now, our feature presentation...

For the movie I put the two 12 foot screens together. I’ve tried that in the past, but finally got it down for this one. It’s a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. They seemed to like the movie, but it took a while for them to get into it. They were cheering and clapping at the end.

Our choir director helpfully took down all of the AV stuff, so I had to race to get everything put back together for the closing devotions. And there was a big transportation snafu, but we all made it, and I had “music videos” of the 7th and 8th graders to show while they waited for the bus.

We managed to skate without incident this year (last year: concussion, broken arm, dislocated knee), and the owner of the skating rink said that we had the best group of kids that he’d ever had at the rink. He said that right before I skated off to “pre-break-up” a fight.

The Votes Are In.

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Well, the votes are in, and we have a movie to show on the last day of middle school. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. We had a fairly large number of suggestions, so the first thing I did was throw out all of the movies that I didn’t want to see. Then I threw out all of the movies that were over 110 minutes long. Then I decided that, since I had already gone to all the trouble to figure out the run time for each movie, I should put up a web page so that other people didn’t have to do the same thing. It’s been up for a few days, and people are already visiting the 50 Best Movies for Middle School page. That actually took a few days, so, when I finally got back to the task at hand, I found I still had a couple of movies too many for the ballot that I wanted…

Vote early. Vote often.

We did an Instant Runoff Election. As a former libertarian, I knew about alernative voting methods, but didn’t have any experience with them. This method is simple enough that we could do it manually during Codes & Ciphers club. The final outcome was decided by one vote, and we had to throw one ballot out (hanging chad) that would have resulted in a tie. The kids really liked that.

Here’s the final order:

9th place: High School Musical — Last choice for over half of the students
8th place: Labyrinth — No one had heard of it
7th place: Sky High
6th place: Clue
5th place: Enchanted
4th place: The Princess Bride — This movie really needs a different name
3rd place: Edward Scissorhands
2nd place: The Sandlot — Most 1st place votes
1st place: Secondhand Lions — Most 2nd & 3rd place votes

Max Payne

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Lauren wasn’t feeling very well yesterday. I picked her up after school and we went to vote, then we got some drugs for Cricket, some Subway for us and went home. She went to bed early, and I watched the networks project winners with 3% of the vote in. But that’s not what I wanted to post about.

Peggy asked what movie we went to see for Bad Movie Night®. We decided that we couldn’t really go wrong with a movie based on a video game, so we went to see Max Payne. It was really bad, and I couldn’t possibly recommend it. But we had a lot of fun making fun of it.

This one goes to 11.

What I don’t really enjoy so much anymore is our local theatre. Ever since Marcus Theatres bought Douglas Theatres, the movie experience has been going downhill. There were two things this time that really ticked me off. First of all, they had grape Icees instead of cola Icees. Why would you do something like that? To put it in my own words, when the concession stand worker said, “We only have grape and cherry.” I could only respond, “Why bother?”

We’ve learned in the last 6 months that we no longer have to try to get to the movie on time, but last week was ridiculous. The Max Payne was scheduled to begin at 5:00. The last commercial and preview was finished at 5:26. Ouch.

Oh, and Ron Paul isn’t our next president. Ouch Ouch.

50 Best Movies for Middle School

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We recently decided to show a movie to our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students on the last day of school. But when we started brainstorming ideas we had some difficulty coming up with movie titles that (a) the students would like and (b) we thought would be worth showing.

Listed below are the movies we came up with after consulting a variety of experts including: current middle school students, former middle school students, middle school teachers from across the country, lots of family movie websites, and random people on twitter and facebook.

Do Your Homework

Don’t Take My Word For It. Always preview any movie before you show it. Just because a movie appears on this (or any other) list doesn’t mean that it works in your situation. For instance, I included Stand by Me in this list and it is rated R. If I were actually going to show it, I would look for an edited for television version. If a movie is rated PG or PG-13, offer some guidance to the students before you watch it. Explain to them what good things they can take away from the movie even though there might be some language that isn’t appropriate at school.

Incorporate it into the curriculum. We’ve shown The Karate Kid when we’re talking about bullying as a school. One teacher shows Newsies in social studies classes when she’s talking about immigration and industrialization. I’ve shown Searching for Bobby Fischer before I teach students how to play chess.

Stay Legal

You may be required to obtain a Public Performance License to show your movie. Movie License USA offers these guidelines for schools to use when determining if they need to purchase a license. Generally, you do not need a license if:

  • A teacher or instructor is present
  • The showing takes place in a classroom setting with only the enrolled students attending
  • The movie is used as an essential part of the core, current curriculum being taught. (The instructor should be able to show how the use of the motion picture contributes to the overall required course study and syllabus.)
  • The movie being used is a legitimate copy, not taped from a legitimate copy or taped from TV

Movie License USA also serves a clearing house for many movie studios, so it is a good spot to look to obtain a license if you need one. They offer single license for $75.00 which is good for one showing of a single movie on a specific date.They also offer site licenses that are good for all of the studios that they represent for one year (as many showings as you’d like). Site license prices are based on the number of students in your school.

About the List

The list is sortable. Click on the heading to sort it by run time, rating and so forth. The title link goes to the Internet Movie Database listing for the movie and the rating link goes to the IMDb Parents Guide for the movie. Additions to the list are welcome. There aren’t actually 50 movies listed yet, so feel free to suggest some in the comments below. If you think a movie on the list is especially good or bad choice to show at school, lets hear that as well.

The List

Title Release Date Run Time (min) Rating
Babe 1995 89 G
Back to the Future 1985 117 PG
Bend It Like Beckham 2002 112 PG-13
Bridge to Terabithia 2007 96 PG
Clue 1985 94 PG
E.T. 1982 113 PG
Edward Scissorhands 1990 105 PG-13
Ella Enchanged 2004 96 PG
Enchanted 2007 107 PG
Facing the Giants 2006 111 PG
Freaky Friday 2003 97 PG
Hairspray 2007 117 PG
Holes 2003 117 PG
Hook 1991 144 PG
How to Eat Fried Worms 2006 98 PG
James and the Giant Peach 1996 79 PG
Journey to the Center of the Earth 2008 93 PG
Labyrinth 1986 101 PG
March of the Penguins 2005 85 G
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium 2007 93 G
Newsies 1992 121 PG
Night at the Museum 2007 108 PG
Nim’s Island 2008 96 PG
Pirates of The Carribean 2003 143 PG-13
Remember the Titans 2000 113 PG
Rudy 2003 116 PG
School of Rock 2003 108 PG-13
Searching for Bobby Fischer 1993 110 PG
Secondhand Lions 2003 109 PG
Simon Birch 1998 114 PG
Sky High 2005 100 PG
Stand By Me 1986 89 R
Swiss Family Robinson 1960 126 G
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 1988 126 PG
The Chronicles of Narnia 2005 143 PG
The Goonies 1985 114 PG
The Karate Kid 1984 126 PG
The Parent Trap 1998 127 PG
The Princes Bride 1987 98 PG
The Sandlot 1993 101 PG
The Secret Garden 1993 101 G
Time Bandits 1981 116 PG
Whale Rider 2002 101 PG-13
Willow 1988 126 PG

What do you think?

  • Suggest another movie? (what did we miss)
  • Any poor choices on the list? (you can’t show that in school)
  • What are your top 3? (two thumbs up)