wasted weekend!

Here is why it was semi-wasted. (as in didn't get anything done, vs I drank too much!)

Well Friday, right after work, I quickly drove 30 miles home to my dentist. Then quickly went to my house, let the dogs out, and once again, quickly drove back into town. There was a happy hour/party, for D-Lo, who took the retirement package here at work. She will be missed, and I wanted to make sure I made an appearance, because she is a great gal.

Saturday, my throat was even sorer than Friday, and my head felt like someone stuffed cotton in through my ears. Sniffles, congested, nothing serious, but enough that I didn't feel like doing anything.

That night, I got to watch my Tarheels beat Louisville, to make it to Final Four. Even though Sunday's game resulted in us playing KU. I'm not looking forward to a week worth of smack talk from the jayhawk fans. And if the terrible happens, and they win, I might take a week off from work to avoid them.

So, since I wasn't feeling great, I watched the two netflix movies I had on hand, plus caught up on some TV shows I had DVR'd.

The Kite Runner
(dvd)
trailer

Starring:
Khalid Abdalla ... Amir
Atossa Leoni ... Soraya
Shaun Toub ... Rahim Kahn
Zekeria Ebrahimi ... Young Amir
Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada ... Young Hassan
Homayoun Ershadi ... Baba
Saïd Taghmaoui ... Farid
Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada... Omar

4 out of 5
First off Atossa Leoni is hawt. There are varying degrees of hawt, and she is on my list.
Now this was a great movie. A story of two young boys one a house-servant, the other his employer's son. The title comes from a competition where you try to cut the strings of another person's kite, with yours. The loser's kite floats to the ground, to be claimed by the victor.

The two are best friends, but after a betrayal involving a bully, they grow apart. Soon Russia invades Afghanistan, and Amir (Khalid Abdalla) and his father 'Baba' (Homayoun Ershadi) flee to Pakistan, then settle in America.

Years later, Amir is called back to Pakistan to see his family friend Omar (Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada) who is very ill. He learns he was summoned back for a different reason. Amir and his childhood friend are actually brothers by blood, and his brother has been murdered. Also killed was his brother's wife, but their son survived. Amir must return to war ravaged Afghanistan to claim his nephew, and rescue him.

I highly recommend this one, be warned though, lots of subtitles. Look for an appearance at the end by Saïd Taghmaoui, who played in a movie a few years ago titled 'Three Kings'.

Day Zero

(dvd)
trailer
Starring:
Elijah Wood ... Aaron Feller
Jon Bernthal ... James Dixon
Chris Klein ... George Rifkin
Ginnifer Goodwin ... Molly Rifkin


3 out of 5
Well, I was on the fence whether to rate this a 2, or a 3. The movie centers around 3 friends. One is a writer, one a lawyer, and the last a taxi cab driver. Years after 9/11, the government has brought back the draft. To sum up the plot, the rest of the movie deals with each characters decision to try dodge it, or report for duty. That about sums it up. While the movie deals with the cost of freedom, it was slow, and it was nice to see Jon Bernthal (Dixon) in a feature film, from the I believe cancelled TV show "The Class". The acting was fine, but as I said, the script moved pretty slow, they have 30 days before they have to report, and at times the movie felt like it took 30 days.