Here are the remaining five movies I watched last month.  Before I go there, though, let me just get this off my chest:  Would someone please slip Sarah Ferguson’s number to Jesse James?  I have never seen two whinier, needier, more excuse-happy pathetic losers in my life.  It’s a match made in heaven. 

There.  I feel much better.  Thank you.

Robin Hood (Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchette 2010)  My friends and I were joking that the movie should really be called “Robin Hood’s Dad” because Russell Crowe is not the first person you’d think of to portray Robin Hood.  Errol Flynn, yes.  Cary Elwes even.  They are both young and lithe (or at least they were when they played Robin of Locksley)  Russell Crowe, though?  Well, it turns out it didn’t matter because I thought he was terrifically successful.  The movie was fun and full of action with a touch of romance.  Also, I have a little bit of a crush on Scott Grimes who played Will Scarlet, so that was all good.

Lion in Winter (Katherine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole 1968)  The reason I rented this movie in the first place was because I enjoyed Robin Hood so much and wanted to learn more about Richard the Lionheart and his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Katherine Hepburn was brilliant and turned in a nuanced performance of an incredibly complicated woman who both loved and openly hated her husband and sons.  Peter O’Toole, though… I’m a huge fan, don’t get me wrong.  No one can touch him as Lawrence of Arabia, but I’m not sure why he chose to go to the William Shatner school of  acting prior to this movie.  He. Clenched. His. Jaw. And. EMOTED. At. Every. Turn.

Latter Days (Steve Sandvoss, Wes Ramsay 2003)  A friend of mine recommended this movie and I’ll just say it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.  It was a tad too graphic for my taste and it just wasn’t a very good story.  Boy #1 meets Boy #2.   Boy #1 discovers his hidden gayness, is excommunicated from his church, ditches Boy #2, and meets Jacqueline Bisset on a park bench.  Bisset (miraculously!)  owns a restaurant where Boy #2 works.  Boy #1 finds Boy #2 and they all have Thanksgiving dinner together… ’cause that always happens in real life.   Another issue for me about this movie is that I’m a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, but this is the second time I’ve seen Amber Benson (Tara) in another vehicle and both times my first thought was, “Wow, she really can’t act, can she?”

My Fair Lady (Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison 1964)  It’s truly shocking that I hadn’t seen this movie before now.  Well, it was worth the wait and utterly delightful.  I knew most of the music as well as the story, but it was well worth it to see Audrey Hepburn’s portrayal of Eliza Dolittle and  Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins pull it all together.  Harrison as Higgins reminds me a bit of Yul Brenner as the King of Siam in that I can’t picture anyone but him playing this role.  It was sweet and fun and I thought Stanley Holloway stole the movie as Eliza’s father.

The September Issue (Documentary 2009)  This movie followed the creation of the September Issue of Vogue – the most important magazine issue each year for the fashion industry.  I wasn’t that impressed.  I thought the director caught a number of interesting moments – such as Anna Wintour’s daughter pretty much dissing her mother’s chosen profession and the Creative Director Grace’s frustration at seeing her work surgically removed from the magazine piece by piece.  That said, there was no real theme that pulled the movie together.  The narrator tells us that the editor of Vogue is responsible for setting fashion trends, and we see Anna at fashion week and talking to top-level designers, but they never clarify why the magazine is so important.  Is it because of the retail buyers?  The advertisers?  The consumers?  I was bummed that the movie didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.