We have done our own humble part to spur on the lacklustre economies of Canada and the United States, here in the Such Is Life household.

Since Christmas Day, we have seen three terrific movies, on both sides of the border. Nobody can say that we aren’t trying to stimulate the economy, if not our taste buds as well (man, you can never get enough $10.00 movie popcorn – seriously, even in a combo, how is that a value??).

It all started Dec 25th, with “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”. While everyone else was scrambling to jam into theatres across North America to view a slobbering dog, we chose to kick off the holiday movie season with a delightful, whimsical movie filled with quirky characters. And it was a great movie! Our buttered thumbs were way up for this highly recommendable flickering picture.

The very next day, it was off to see Will Smith’s new movie, “Seven Pounds”. A weeper to be sure, quite inventive, and also highly recommendable. It all comes together in the last leg of the movie, but both Smith and co-star Rosario Dawson make the journey worth the wait. Again, buttery thumbs way up.

Last night, back in Canada, we had advance screening tickets to Clint Eastwood’s new movie, “Gran Torino”. WHAT A GREAT MOVIE!! Part “All In The Family” pushing the envelope of bigotry and a cranky old fart, part study of integration and aging, this movie will be yet another award-winner for Grandpa Eastwood. I’m sorry, you just can’t help but love his character in the movie, even though the screenplay goes out of its way to ensure that you might not.

I’m not sure which of these new movies I would recommend the most – maybe all three, for entirely different reasons. I guess we’ll see the dog movie when it comes to Super Channel, or Movie Central. For now, we must put away the magical world of movies, and concentrate on stimulating another part of the slumping economy – we’ll pick up some Starbucks, on our drive into Mrs. That Dan Guys’ work…

Chow for now!!