Movie, TV and Musical Weekend

This weekend was an unplanned, fun movie and television extravaganza. Friday night we went to the Amazon Prime preview of Jumanji. It was good. I would swear I saw Kirsten Dunst's name in the acting credits, but evidently that's impossible, so...  And keep in mind, I had no idea she was in the original film. Why did I think I saw her name? SUPERweird. I did look up on my phone whether we were supposed to sit through the credits to see any outtakes or other scenes, so maaaaaaybe I saw her name in my search or something. I dunno. Strange.

Saturday we watched Opening Night on Netflix. Enjoyed it! JC Chasez and Taye Diggs? Yes, please. It was funny, too!



Next up (because we watched Opening Night and followed up with "other musicals we might like," we discovered the musical comedy TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, also on Netflix. OMG. That is one of the funniest shows ever! How did I miss it before? We binged about 6 episodes of that. Can't wait to continue all the way through Season 2 on Netflix. Season 3 started in October on the CW.

There are one or two very-well produced, hilarious songs per episode. Most of it is regular sitcom, with speaking characters. The songs go a little somethin' like this...



We watched Born in China, the Disney animal film of 2017. So cute!



Then last night, we watched The Last Five Years, which is also on Netflix. It's a two-character musical from 2014 (the play was originally in Chicago, then off-Broadway in 2002) covering a five year relationship and marriage. Cathy starts at their breakup at the end of the story and moves backward in time to the beginning, while Jamie starts at the beginning and moves forward to the end. They alternate songs all the way through, moving towards each other on the timeline, meeting in the middle, then moving ever away again. The final song is brilliant! I could listen to Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan sing all day long. I really loved it. The reviews are very middle-of-the-road, but take a chance on this one.



Years ago, Lauren had "If I Didn't Believe In You," a song from the play, on one of her car CDs. Jamie is frustrated with Cathy during the song, and addresses her by name throughout. We used to laugh when it came on, as he seemed to berate me for four minutes straight. Ha!

The Buffalo game was crazy yesterday, right? Football in a blizzard!