I really despise holidays when my folks are in town (which is sadly nearly all of them), because they always mean one thing: having to endure "family time" watching a usually thoroughly-dreadful piece of cinematic garbage that "looked interesting" to my folks in the Redbox machine. It's usually pure torture for the better part of a day, especially since it usually takes my family an average of 2 hours to get through every 1 hour of a movie due to constant stops (and in the case of Mothers' day, having to sit through the tedium that is my mom forcing me through page after Facebook page of wedding photos of childhood friends I haven't seen since I was a child). Just a couple movies here from the last few gatherings (Mothers' Day and Easter):
Marley & Me - 7/10 - Honestly, this one wasn't too bad, and it's based on a true story. It's also probably the only decent movie I've ever seen Owen Wilson in. Where it suffers is that....well...it's a Hollywood dog movie that doesn't involve a dog saving the day. It sadly ends just about how you'd expect, which is hard for me to sit through (especially since the movie telegraphs it coming long before the end). The movie also suffers from some painfully slow pacing.
Mean Girls - 5/10 - A perfectly average and formulaic movie starring Lindsay Lohan and the painfully unfunny comedians "stars" of the most recent crop of Saturday Night Live rejects comedians. Lohan is alright, and apparently this movie was her last role as a decent person. The person, oddly enough, who stands out is Tina Fey, probably the only member of the most recent cast of SNL comedians I actually like, in a quiet role as a simple mathematics teacher. I don't know, I suppose you'd have to have been a petty teenage girl at some point to really "get" this movie, but my biggest problem with it is that it follows the oh-so-typical narrative arc of "nerd joins popular kids, becomes a jerk herself, and then redeems herself once she learns the power of friendship; love; the Heart of the Cards; etc." It's not a bad movie, just nothing special.