Well, so much for my wonderful stupendous fantastic vacation.  It was all those things plus relaxing and re-energizing.

My wife & I had so much fun!  Laughed and acted like kids for nearly 2 weeks.  We went to see 3 movies and enjoyed each and every one.  Here’s what I thought of the movies.

On Christmas Day we saw The Hobbit.  It is not the same story as told in the book, nearly, but not the same.  The reason is simple, the director is tying the story of The Hobbit into the Lord Of The Rings in ways J.R.R. Tolkien never did.  But it is done skillfully and unobtrusively.   4 Thumbs up.

A couple days after that we dropped everything we were doing and ran off to see Jack Reacher.  I have said long and loud that I didn’t think Tom Cruise could pull off the  part of Jack Reacher.  I am a huge fan of the Lee Child character.  In the books Jack is 6′ 3″ and goes about 230.  A hulking, scarey presence of a human.  Tom Cruise is 5’7″ and goes about 185 sopping wet in a burlap bag.  The one thing Tom is able to pull of is the look of someone that has no boundaries when it come to doing what he thinks is right.  The look is his eyes is enough to carry the day.  My wife enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it more.  2 thumbs up and 2 thumbs said it could have waited for DVD.  I never felt he could pull the role off, I was wrong.

Then Saturday afternoon we took my daughter to see Les Mis.  This is the only way I was gonna see this show.  I would have preferred to see it on stage, the tickets and the travel to see it that way priced it out of my range.  It was nicely done.  Hugh Jackman can really sing.  My daughter and I decided it was like watching the movie Guys and Dolls.  Marlon Brando singing?  Russell Crowe singing???  About the same ability actually.  From the three of us 4 thumbs up.  My wife didn’t care for Crowe’s singing one little bit.