Hunter's Movie List of the year 2011

I rated all the movies we saw this year on IMDB.com so that I could send out my list following Aubrey's uncle Brennan. Aubrey and I are big movie buffs and we were able to see a lot of movies in 2011. Aubrey's list would probably be different than mine below but as far as the 2012 movies we're excited about, I have to agree with Aubrey 100%, Hunger games is going to be the movie of the year in 2012. I will be seeing that on March 22nd at 12 AM!! Let me know what you think.

Honorable Mentions-
The Adjustment Bureau- Prototypical Matt Damon movie. Certainly worth watching.

Source Code- This is a poor man's 'Inception'. About a soldier that jumps from body to body from Afghanistan to a man in a train in Chicago. Action film. Jake Glyndehall's acting is solid in this movie.

Contagion- Very interesting concept about a disease that takes over the world and battling it. Lots of A-list actors. Good rental for redbox.

10- Limitless- An action movie about a writer who discovers a drug that changes his life. He starts to use 100% of his brain as opposed to the 10%. It is really interesting to see how he thinks and he has rises to success and then back to reality. Acting by Bradley Cooper is great.

9- Rio- Not sure how this movie didn't get on Brennan's list but it was one of my favorite movies of the year. Really cute movie about bird in Minnesota that goes to Brazil. It's made by the same guys that made IceAge. Cute and clever humor.

8- Moneyball- Brad Pitt played the role well and it's certainly was a good movie worth watching but I expected more. The movie failed to mention that part of the reason that Billy Bean (main character) had three of the best pitchers in the MLB and that he had all of his success from pickign players based on statistics. While there is some truth to this, when you have Hudson, Mulder, and Zito in his prime you MUST recognize this. Note- if you don't follow baseball, you likely will not care about the lack of these pitchers in the movie.

7- Warrior- Since Aubrey bought me a boxing membership for my birthday this year I have been more interested in fighting. The Warrior was about MMA fighting which is a little different than boxing but is very good.

6- Mission Impossible- I liked Tom Cruise performance in this. The movie kept my attention. Another action movie. A lot of action movies have poor acting but this movie had solid acting as well as great special affects.

5- Puss in Boots- I wasn't expecting much from this movie but I should have. After seeing all the Shreks I was expecting this to be taken off of Shrek. It was unique to just Puss. Very clever. Made me like cats more. Good family fun. Would highly recommend this to anyone.

4- Water for Elephants- A movie that took you inside the circus from the early 1900's. I liked this movie so much that I read the book afterwards. I really enjoyed the story within a story from the narrators voice. If you haven't read the book, I would recommend it. I guess there are a couple bad parts but by the time I got to it, Aubrey had already ripped out those pages.

3- Rise of the Planet of the Apes- Based in San Francisco, prequel to the original. I never saw the original but the graphics in this movie were superb. I liked to see the Apes interact together and the psyche of the movie. I love animals.... probably the reason I put this so high.

2- Midnight in Paris- Owen Wilson is one of my favorite actors. This movie makes me want to visit Paris. I thought it was interesting to see the personalities of some of the most famous Authors portrayed. I didn't appreciate it's beauty the first time I saw it as much as the second time I watched it with Aubrey and she explained so much of it to me all over again.

MOVIE OF THE YEAR 1- The Help- I read the book AFTER watching the movie because I was so intrigued with how good the movie was. I even got choked up a little bit in this one. The book was also very good. I LOVED actress Mae Mobley in the movie "You is Kind, You is Smart, and You is important". This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

So precious

The cutest thing happened today and I just had to share. I have a new student at the Ivycrest dance school named (Ali). She is the sweetest little unassuming, attentive, happy little thing. Always smiling even after I have a major melt down and yell at my 5 year olds when they mess up their recital dance. 

We were doing our usual routine, gathering the other 5 jazz dancers from their respective classrooms and waiting by the bathroom for a couple class mates to change into their dance clothes. Out of nowhere (or so I thought) she asked: "Ms. Aubrey, are you sad today?"
It was so perceptive, so oddly thoughtful of a 5 year old, I couldn't help but answer honestly. I smiled a little bit and responded that yes, I was having a tough day. She asked why. I shrugged my shoulders, not about to burden her with silly adult problems. She thought a moment and looked up at me.
"Is it because you miss your mom?"
Seriously, this girl just gets it. New favorite student.

Far Too Long

Alright, you know we're struggling at blogging when I have to write the blog post. Yes, that's me Hunter. If I had it my way, I would control Aubrey and make her write the blog post but she is too busy with all her other fun things so you have to deal with my updates. The reality is, all 4 of you that read this blog on a quarterly basis do not care if we post or not. I want to have it because it's the closest thing we have to a journal. Anyways, it's been far too long since something was posted.


The picture above is our picture from the LMU vs BYU game last night in Los Angeles. We went to the game with Kate and Tanner and went to Truxton afterwards. It's some bomb american cuisine restaurant in LA. We had a lot of fun and ruined all of our calorie diets for the new year (WHOOO CARES!) The Cougars ended up winning by 8 or so but the game was too close. Aubrey was real excited because after the game Brandon Davies waived at her and Kate. They were as excited as a 14 year old school girl. I was pretty excited too because Coach Dave Rose told me I had a nice jersey three times. I was wearing Jimmer's Sacramento Kings jersey that I bought from my buddy Jordan Lewis.

Anyways, 2012 is among us and Aubrey is stoked to be able to read a lot of books. The Angels signed Albert Pujols and Aubrey and I got a 21 game package season tickets. Really excited about that! I was able to win a president club for my new company which will be accompanied by a trip to Cabo San Lucas Mexico. We're pretty excited about that. We are also looking forward to having Kate and Tanner's little girl join the family and AJ and Jen's child join the bunch. Should be a fun year. I have become a movie buff.

My favorite movie of the year was the Help. I also really liked Water for Elephants, Midnight in Paris, Mission Impossible 4 and Warrior. Hunger Games is coming out in March. I am ECSTATIC about that movie coming out as it was one of my favorite books I have ever read. Up there with Rich Dad Poor Dad, which has literally changed my thought process and the way I think.

We'll keep up better in 2012. Peace out.