72 Hours in Hell
A recap of the media I consumed while horizontal on the couch with the stomach flu 🤢
I always seem to come down with a stomach bug at the most inopportune of times. There was the night before a final exam, when I lived in a dorm and shared a community bathroom with dozens of strangers. There was the day when I had to be out of my house for hours at a time while the realtor completed showing after showing in hopes of procuring an offer. And more recently on a Thursday afternoon, when my ‘to-do’ list was a mile long and we were in the trenches of preparing to paint the interior of our house.
It came on quick and I chalked it up to a bad lunch; but as the afternoon went on, I started feeling worse and worse. The first 24 hours were truly hellacious. I couldn’t keep anything down. My muscles were tight from dehydration and I couldn’t get comfortable. Once I could finally stomach some ibuprofen, water, and saltines (the holy trinity) it was smoother sailing. I was finally able to enjoy some long-form content™ aka movies1. I watched a lot of ‘em over the next 48 hours and a recap is below in case you are in the market for a movie to watch.
The Mask: I started a ‘30 movies to Rewatch in Year 30’ list in my bullet journal (inspo from
; she posts on the ‘stack but also on the ‘gram as @clairefromonline ) and this one is on the list. Truly a classic from my childhood that I surprisingly haven’t rewatched in YEARS, I was downright delighted when I saw I could watch it for *FREE* on Tubi. Jim Carrey in his prime, Cameron Diaz lookin’ like a total babe, and a cute pup as the one of the stars—it was a really fun movie to revisit!George of the Jungle: This is another movie from the aforementioned ‘30 in 30’ list. Not as good as I remembered and at times just straight up ridiculous—but hey, young & buff Brendan Fraser is *chef’s kiss* in a loin cloth. I probably would’ve bailed on this one midway through had I not spent my hard earned dollars to rent it.
Billy Madison: Another movie from the list 🤠I surprisingly haven’t rewatched this movie in years so I was excited to see it was available to stream on Peacock. Not as good as I remembered and honestly some parts gave me the icks.
Austin Powers in Goldmember: Also from the list. Austin Powers being Austin Powers, but this time Beyoncé is with him! It’s fun! I remember so vividly being like 10, doing the Foxy Cleopatra snaps with my siblings. What a time to be alive!
The Big Year: Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson play avid birders who are trying to beat the record in a year long bird spotting competition. It was really cute and fun! Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Failure to Launch: Matthew McConaughey plays a 35 year-old womanizing man-child who lives at home. His parents are so eager to get him out of their house that they hire Sarah Jessica Parker, an interventionist, to pretend to date him in order to motivate him to fly the coop. 5.6/10 on IMDB, and ya know, I concur.
The Secrets of Hillsong: Okay, technically not a movie, but a random docu-series that I picked after I spent too much time scanning for something to watch on Hulu. It was an interesting overview about Hillsong, a megachurch, and their long history of misconduct, abuse, and deceit. Organized religion makes me uneasy and mega-churches have always given me the icks. I’m glad to have some evidence to back my gut-feeling.
~And now….the segment of my stomach flu movie watch fest that I’d like to refer to as the ‘Sandra Bullock-a-thon’~
The Heat: I’ve seen this one before, but couldn’t remember any of the deets. Sandra plays a tough FBI agent, Melissa McCarthy is a goofy Boston cop, and together they take down some bad guys. A touch problematic, but mostly fun.
The Proposal: Sandra plays the same uptight, career-obsessed character that she does in The Heat, except this time she’s an editor who is blackmailing her assistant into marrying her so she doesn’t get deported back to her native Canada. Ryan Reynolds plays her assistant, which means there’s lots of sarcasm & banter. I don’t think I’ll need to revisit this one anytime soon, in fact I could do without seeing that weird dance scene between Sandra & Betty White (RIP to a queen!!) for at least another decade.
The Lost City: This was the first time I watched this film. Bullock plays a romance-adventure novelist who is kidnapped. Channing Tatum, who plays the cover model that adorns her novels, sets out to save her. Brad Pitt makes an appearance and Daniel Radcliffe plays a bad guy. It was kinda goofy2, but I was entertained nonetheless. :)
And that’s a wrap! Wherever you are on this beautiful planet, I hope this newsletter finds you well. I hope you are in good health, and I hope the stomach bug stays far away from you.
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I am sure I am not the only one that has noticed that sitting through an entire movie is hard. Who can pay attention for that long?! But since deleting instagram from my phone (and thus cutting my screen time in half) I have been relishing in my returned abilities to focus. I’m able to get lost in movies again, and thank god, because I needed a distraction from the nausea.
why didn’t I think to put A Goofy Movie on my ‘30 in 30’ list before this moment?!