I don’t know how I watched all these movies this weekend and still had time for laundry, grilling by the waterfront, Market Days, Retro on Roscoe, cleaning, and karaoke singing. But I did.

The Yes Men Fix the World
I’ve never heard of The Yes Men until I selected this free On-Demand HBO documentary.

In this vignette-heavy film, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, the group’s two most prominent members, create all sorts of trouble as they appear on talk shows and conferences, posing as DOW Chemical or HUD representatives, in their culture jamming attempts to shake up the system. I found it incredibly fascinating — that they could get away with such extreme Tom Foolery with nary a scratch or a lawsuit. I’m not quite sure how much change they’re really creating through trickery and misrepresenting, but at least it helps shake us out of our role as passive consumer of greed-based decisions.

A Haunting in Connecticut
I like a good haunted house movie. This one was just average, with almost too many cheap jolts to have any impact when the real thing comes along. The boy who cried wolf, you know. I also question the “based on a true story” BS. Because if it’s true, those clever ghosts certainly studied up on their haunted house film cliches. The cool-as-a-cucumber Virginia Madsen tries to hold it all together. Furthermore, that ectoplasm nonsense has been debunked for decades. Why pass it off as real?

Confessions of a Shopaholic
I read the book and enjoyed it. Stop judging me. It had a cheeky, modern British voice, and I found the heroine, Amanda Bloomfield Rebecca Bloomwood, plucky and fun. The story got all treacly near the end, but that was to be expected.

The movie, whoever, removes all the charm from its source material by transporting the action to Manhattan and injecting all the annoying elements from movies and shows featuring young women working for powerhouse fashion magazines.

The plot is a paint-by-numbers-just-add-water-heat-n-serve-as-seen-on-tv snorefest. Pity that Isla Fisher couldn’t redo this movie with a better script and a British accent, as she’s an appealing actress with a flair for physical comedy.