Recently in the home theater, Hitchcock's personal favorite, "Shadow of a Doubt." It is arguably his best constructed film, in my mind: tight, real menace in an otherwise bucolic setting, and brilliant acting from Joseph Cotton (in his prime) and Theresa Wright (with whom I fall in love every single time I watch her, she having starred in my favorite two WWII films ("The Best Years of Our Lives" and "Mrs. Minniver"--where you get Myrna Loy and Greer Garson, respectively, to boot--other thinking man's "hotties" from the 1940s).

The movie is definitely my wife's favorite Hitchcock.

As people who collect antiques, we also love the house in the movie.

Rewatched "Independence Day" with kids, then also "Hancock" (first time) where Justin Bateman did his usual stellar job, as did Will Smith and Charlize Theron. Loved the opening segments, and then got turned off by the mythical finish. But in rewatching "Hancock" over the weekend, it actually does work pretty well. What was off was the stupid superhero fight in the middle, which served no purpose whatsoever.

Then a weird karma kicks in: having watched Anne Hathaway repeatedly in "Get Smart," where she is sexy and cool beyond words and makes you realize she should have a very long and good career, we re-watch "Married to the Mob" (Demme directs, Byrne does the music) for the first time in years and I get to fall in love with Michelle Pfeiffer all over again, as I always do with that movie, plus indulge in Dean Stockwell's great turn (just after seeing him again in "Dune").

Having done that, Vonne and I go out to St. Elmo's for steaks yesterday and catch an art house presentation of "Rachel Gets Married," Demme's latest starring Anne Hathaway (and Demme's usual side cast of strange bit players, like Sister Carol East (the hairdresser in "Mob") and Paul Lazar (Tony's right hand who gets killed by burger "clown" Chris Isaak). Hathaway, to me, is simply stunning in this role of the rehab loser who,in the past, had accidentally committed a heinous act and now shows up to his sister's wedding. She should really get Oscar consideration for that role. Other bonuses in the film, which is shot very indy and carries a brutally heartfelt quality that actually forced me to look away at several sequences--not because they were hard to watch but because they were hard to bear in their agonizing quality: Bill Irwin, who's always a treat, and Debra Winger, who plays a very cold figure and does it well enough to also merit Oscar consideration. Plus you get "Madge" from "Mad Men" as the central character, who is hard to like in many ways, because my sympathies were with Hathaway's character.

Then I'm in the big tub last night soaking from all the recent workouts (gotta look good in Feb!) and catching up on papers, only to catch the Hathaway-hosted SNL rerun, which started with the hilarious veep debate parody.

Today, taking the boys to "Quantum Solace," which Kev has already "beaten" repeatedly in game form--natch.

Two gotta-sees on the radar: Danny Boyle's latest, "Slumdog Millionaire," which coincidentally focuses on Mumbai; and Mickey O'Rourke's wrestler movie, which should get him an Oscar nod.