M & M Day

No, I'm not talking about chocolate candies that "melt in your mouth, not in your hand". Instead, I am referring to a day that began with breakfast and then a massage and movie.

Denise had the day off today, so we decided to spend the day together. After picking her up at home, we headed off for breakfast after running a few errands.

From there, we went to our favorite massage place near the Northridge Fashion Center. We were both aching. She was aching from her boxing workouts and I was aching from my martial arts workouts and dismantling and lugging the old bed out to the dumpster. That thing was heavy and awkward.

Following the massage, we then went to the Northridge Fashion Square's theaters to see the new Leonardo DiCaprio flick, The Revenant.

According to Wikipdedia:

The Revenant is a 2015 American frontier revenge film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Written by Iñárritu and Mark L. Smith, based in part on Michael Punke's The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge, the film is inspired by the experiences of frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass. Set in 1823 Montana and South Dakota, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Glass, and co-stars Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, and Domhnall Gleeson.

The film was nicely shot with beautiful scenery (shot in the U.S., Canada and Argentina). It had lots of blood, snow, rivers and pine forests (I felt almost compelled to ask out loud, "Where's the RV park?"). It was rather long (156 minutes). My grade: A.

And, no, DiCaprio's character does not get raped by a grizzly bear.

"Django Unchained" (2012)

Above, Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx.

Last night, I watched another awards screener DVD.

This one was Django Unchained (2012).

From Wikipedia:

Django Unchained is a 2012 American epic western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson and was released on December 25, 2012 in North America.

Set in the antebellum era of the Deep South and Old West, the film follows a freed slave (Foxx) who treks across the United States with a bounty hunter (Waltz) on a mission to rescue his wife (Washington) from a cruel and charismatic plantation owner (DiCaprio).

Django Unchained is a very violent (as one would expect from a Tarantino flick) movie, but it is done in a tongue-in-cheek style and is very entertaining.  The blood and gore being splattered around reminded me of Sam Peckinpah's movies, particularly The Wild Bunch.

The make-up work was top notch.  It was so good that I almost didn't recognize Samuel L. Jackson.  He looked like Uncle Ben (of steamed rice fame).

I can see why there was much controversy over the use of the "n-word" throughout the movie.  But, I also see why it was necessary, given the era the movie was set in.

My grade: A.