cloudy with a chance of awesome

Movies in the Attic

We traveled to Costa Rica with a projector, a screen, and a speaker in hopes of setting up our attic as a Movie Theatre. We continue to improve the setting, but so far it has been an absolute success. Since we don’t have a television in the house, this has become a way for us to prioritize what we are watching as family movie nights. Therefore, we will be keeping a running log of the movies we are watching with personal ratings from all four us to go along with each film. All ratings will be 0-5, with Cleo using 🧈(sticks of butter), Gene using 🐾(paw prints), Elise using 🐕‍🦺(dogs), and I will be using 🍕(slices of pizza).

#19 October 10th: The NeverEnding Story: We really waited a long time to watch this film, mostly out of fear of subjecting the kids to possible nightmare inducing content. In the end, everyone loved this film and it received some of the highest grades to this point from us all. Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕

#18 October 8th: Stuart Little: This was our first movie we watched based on a book that Gene read with great delight. It made us so happy for her to read this lovely book and the movie is quite enjoyable with Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie doing some great work with early CGI. I will always love hearing Michael J. Fox’s voice as Stuart. In a random side note, Elise and watched “War Games” later this same evening and it ended up being a double shot of Dabney Coleman films. I think we will have to watch the 1984 Clock & Dagger film as well to complete the Dabney Trilogy.

Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕

#16-17 October 4th & 5th: Night at the Museum & Night at the Smithsonian: I still love these movie so much and want to imagine these as sequels for Eli Cash and Chas Tenenbaum in an alternate universe.

Night at the Museum:

Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕

Night at the Smithsonian:

Gene 🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2

#15 October 2nd: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2: This is actually a really fun sequel with a ton of creatively names animals based on foods, like a shrimpanzee, chesspider, tacodile surpeme, bananostrich and a watermelophant. It is also has a truly stressful plot for a kids animation that had us all on the edge of our seats.

Gene 🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2

#14 September 25: Peter Pan & Wendy: Another reimagining of a classic, but this time by David Lowery (not the lead singer of the band Cracker), who also directed Pete’s Dragon, The Green Knight, A Ghost Story and the Old Man & the Gun. This was a re-watch for me and I enjoyed it far more the second time around. This was technically not an “attic” movie, but one we watched together on a TV at our AirBnB in Tarcoles, Costa Rica.

Gene 🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2

#13 September 20th: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: This book/movie is the inspiration for this blog’s name and it was great to re-watch. I think it is one of the best movie adaptations of a children’s book. The book remain one of my favorites to read aloud to students as well. Don’t sleep on the sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh. It has the same lovely charm as the first book.
Gene 🐾🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕

#12 September 15th: Our first paired movie night, with Elise and Cleo watching “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (Cleo had just finished reading the book) in the attic and Gene and I watching the movie, “Spellbound,” cuddled up with an iPad in bed. I think Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman had more chemistry as mostly non-verbal monsters in this animated Spellbound reunion than they did as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in “Being the Ricardos.”

Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺

Spellbound
Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾
John 🍕🍕🍕

#11 September 13: The Cat From Outer Space: This was a wild re-watch, particularly for Elise and myself. A 1978 film featuring the special effects of the time, with a ridiculous gambling plot combined with perhaps the longest action sequence in the history of film that involved a cat flying plane in pursuit of a helicopter. It is 30 minutes too long, but will provide a nice shot of nostalgia for those looking for such a thrill.
Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈 1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕

#10 September 11: Climbing Giants: This film was locally made in Monteverde and was recommended to us by some friends we met here. It does a great job of explaining “EPIPHYTES” and their role amongst the strangler figs and ficus trees that relentlessly drop one’s jaw upon finding them in the cloud forest. It is a short, 47ish minute documentary with some amazing visuals. Unfortunately, it does seem to be only available on YouTube at the moment. Check it out here, Climbing Giants.
Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 😴😴😴 1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2
#9 September 10th: Holes: This is a movie that I have watched more than almost any other over the past 15 years. This is mostly the result of it being an amazing read aloud book and eventual “movie day” for my students. Cleo read this book in less than 2 says time on her own and it prompted us to immediately gather in the attic to watch it together. It should be noted that this movie’s soundtrack features the Eels, Becky, Shaggy and Dr. John.
Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈 1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕
#8 September 7th: Nacho Libre: This did not disappoint, but it also did not advance our Spanish at all. At this point I think Jack Black is our collective, favorite actor. And this song is just awesome…
Gene 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈 1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕
#6 September 1st: Short Circuit: This viewing was a direct result of having watch Wall-E. It is now obvious how inspirational this film was to the creation of Wall-E, even down to the cockroach/grasshopper connections and the role of music, dancing and the input of movies. The jokes in the movie are quite horrible and sexist and feel horribly out of place. The military trying to dissemble/destroy Johhny 5 though feels fantastically like peak 1980’s.
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈 1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2

#7 September 4th: Short Circuit 2: This viewing was heavily pushed for by Gene and I am really glad to have watched these films back to back. Fisher Stevens, who plays Ben Jahrvi is given a much more likable role in this sequel and at one point Michael McKean is riding Johhny 5 like a motorcycle through Midtown Manhattan. Cleo and Elise liked it even more than the first one.
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2
#5 August 30th: WALL-E: This hits just as hard as it did when it came out.
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕1/2
#4 August 29th: The Big Year: This was a re-watch for me and we all really loved this movie. Traveling and exploring with Elise has opened to a while new world in terms of birding and it made this movie all the more special to watch together in Monteverde.
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾🐾 1/2
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕
#3 August 28th: A Little Princess: This is where is all began. It led to Y Tu Mamá También and then to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to the Children of Men. (Yes, I am purposely ignoring his film, ‘Great Expectations.” The best thing about that movie was the song “Like a Friend” written by Pulp for the soundtrack.
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕1/2
#2 August 25th: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 1/2
John 🍕🍕🍕🍕
This was a bit of a mistake on my part. I was trying to show the movies in order of release, but similar to the controversy surrounding the “correct” order to read the Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe books, I mistakenly followed the chronological order of the stories, versus the release date of the films. Ergo, I need to correct this mistake as soon as possible. As you can see from the ratings though, it was tough viewing for ladies in the attic.

Chronological Order of Indiana Jones
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1996 TV series / films) – Set primarily between 1908 and 1920, depicting Indy’s childhood and youth.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – Set in 1935 (a chronological prequel to the first released film).
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – Set in 1936.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – Set in 1938 (though opening flashback scenes take place in 1912).
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) – Set in 1957.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) – Set in 1969 (with a prologue set in 1944).
# 1 August 23: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:
Gene 🐾 🐾🐾🐾
Cleo 🧈🧈🧈🧈1/2
Elise 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺
John 🍕🍕🍕1/2

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“Curveball, or a bender. I don’t know much about curveballs, but I’ve sure had experience with benders.”

~ Bob Uecker (Go Brewers!)

cloudy with a chance of awesome

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