Going to Jacques tonight

So my plans have been to have a romantic new year's eve dinner with my husband, just the 2 of us, but that's been shot to hell.  Now my in-laws are attending plus a couple that we are friends with.  The only thing I can hope for now is that my father in-law does not embarrass me too badly tonight.  Chez Jacques is a sometimes quiet, but always classy kind of place with an expensive menu.  It's not the kind of place for my father in-law to be snapping his fingers at waiters and being loud and obnoxious.

No matter what you're doing tonight, be safe and don't drink and drive!
Have fun!!

My personal New Year's Eve Resolutions

Time again to sit down and focus on what you need to do this year, what you want to do this year, and face the facts of what you will really do this year.
My new year's resolutions for the world to see.

Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
Reality - this one won't be too hard.  I drink a ton of water & tea already, so I'll only need to make sure I drink a little more then I normally do.

Drink only one glass of soda as a treat, once a month.
Reality - I've completely given up cola so that's not a challenge at all.  The problem is every once in a while, I can get into a pattern of wanting a Sprite, or Ginger Ale.  Those are the soda's I do like, and I enjoy some carbonation   I'll have to get flavored seltzer water instead as a low calorie substitute and try not to do that too often either.

Limit myself to only one sweet a week like a candy bar or a cupcake.
Reality - this one is a tough one for me.  I love sugar and trying to restrict it completely for me, is just not a good idea.  I'll end up bingeing after staying away even for a little while, so I've got to have it worked in there somewhere for myself.  The only thing I can do is try to be strong and keep my weight loss and health goals in mind with this one.

Work out 6 days a week.
Reality - when I'm home in Phoenix this is not an issue.  It's something I can easily do since I enjoy my walks to the gym, have someone to go with, and the weather's good there almost all the time.  While I'm away from home is the issue here.  I hate cold weather and the snow and ice make it dangerous for me to take walks outside.  The basement has an exercise bike, but it's frozen down there and it's filled with bare light bulbs and spiders.  I just hate the environment down there so I resist going down there as much as possible.  I'm planning on getting an elliptical upstairs so I can watch tv and be warm without spiders hanging over my head.

Eat out only once a month.
Reality - again, good at this in Phoenix, not so much when I'm with my husband.  He always wants to treat me by taking me out for a meal or a treat like Dairy Queen.  As much as I love his gestures, I just can't be healthy and continue to eat out too often.  I wish he'd treat me with a shopping trip instead of food.

Eat 5 servings of fruit and vegetables every day.
This is not as challenging as I thought originally.  All you have to do is work in some blueberries in my morning oatmeal, snack on some mandarin oranges at lunch.  Eat an apple, or some V8 during the day and I'm set.

I'm ending my own business

Well, a while back, I said I was going to start my own business to make some money, but I've decided against going further with it.
I started the process of buying up paints, wood shapes and signs, stencils, and brushes only to learn that after multiple attempts, this would be something I strictly do for fun.
I cannot make a business out of this simply because......stenciling is hard.
The only way I might be able to continue with original plans is to use a pencil line first around the stencils and then fill in the outline carefully with paint.

Updates as they come up.

It's too bad I just couldn't figure this out before my Halloween party since I was planning on giving out homemade prizes, but live and learn I guess.

Halloween party 2012

Where were you on October 13th, 2012?

My second annual party for Halloween has come and gone and I can say, it was a doozy to get through this year.
I had originally planned on getting home weeks in advance to decorate for it, but I was really sick and had to go into the hospital.  Not only did that slow me down, it completely stopped all party planning for about 2 weeks.  Once I got out and was well enough to go ahead with things, I was grossly behind.
The last two weeks before my party, I really tried to put everything into overdrive, but still failed to get everything I wanted accomplished.
On top of that, some of my props failed right before guests started to arrive, so I wasn't happy with that either.
On the up side, a lot of people came this year.  I had a total of 15 guests and everyone did have a good time.  The music worked, my biggest prop worked and was a hit.  The food was plentiful and tasted good and I got a lot of help from my family and husband to set everything up and clean up afterwards.
I definitely learned some things to keep in mind for next year.

I think I'll make less food and work less hard to make everything perfect.  It's never going to perfect, but I can make it fun without killing myself.

I have to make sure to send out invitations early again and invite as many people as I can think of to guarantee that lots will show up.

And do it late enough in the year that seating outside is available because that was a popular option for guests this year.

Start working on my trivia game early and come up with a wide range of answers for each question.

Another Earth

Released: 2011
Sci-fi, Drama
Director: Mike Cahill
Starring: Brit Marling, William Mapother
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A young woman goes back to visit a man after she changes his life from a fatal car accident years earlier.

This was an indie film that I had never heard of.  The plot is that one night a duplicate Earth is found in our own solar system and appears to be moving towards our Earth.  There's a young teen who's been accepted into college early and is out celebrating with alcohol the same night as the announcement is made of Earth 2.  She gets into her car drunk and is listening to the radio as the announcement is made and looks up to the sky to see it, but it's very far away and she has to look for a long while to find it.  While she's looking she doesn't see she's veered into the oncoming lane of traffic and causes a fatal head on collision with a family in their car, waiting at the red light.
After the accident she's arrested and put into jail for 4 years.  After her release, she gets a job, and tries to find the courage to locate the man who survived the accident to apologize for killing his son and wife.
She was a minor at the time of the accident so the man was never told who she was or anything about her.
She feels she must apologize to him, so one day she goes to his house and knocks on his door, but she loses her nerve and makes up a story about how she's from a cleaning agency and offering house keeping services.
The man accepts her offer and through this initial meeting she keeps going to his house, cleaning, but every time with the intention of actually telling him who she is and why she's there.
She also enters the contest that's offering a ride to the other Earth as it gets closer.  Scientists are eager to find out whether it's a mirror image of our planet and if there are duplicates of each person on our own Earth.
 
It's an interesting movie and worth a look if you like science fiction or dramas.  The acting was good, along with the plot (some ideas are silly like another planet comes closer to us and then getting so close without affecting tides and our gravity) has some minor holes, but I ignored them due to the rest of the movie being good.  A few camera shots were overused and awkward, but still forgivable.
I say watch it if you get the chance.  It's a good ending with some thought-provoking moments.
3 and 1/2 out of 5.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Released: 2011
Action, Fantasy
Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A sequel featuring Johnny Blaze helping a young boy survive against the devil's best efforts to take over his body and become human.

I remember liking the first one, so it couldn't have been as bad as this sequel was.
First off, let me sum up the story for you.
Johnny Blaze is hiding out alone in Easter Europe trying to keep his alter-ego, The Ghost Rider, from hurting anyone.
One day, he is found by a stranger who says he needs his help.  There's a young kid that has the devil after him.  The devil wants to take human form and this boy is special as he is the devil's own son, birthed by a human mother.
If Johnny will help, the stranger explains that his friends can remove his curse and leave him to be human again.
Johnny agrees and sets off with the stranger to try to find the boy.

That's all you really need to know.  Nicolas Cage, I think, with age is getting worse as an actor, or perhaps, I've lost my tolerance for his bad acting.  The storyline is weak to begin with, but Cage's performance and lack of good dialogue really brings down the film.  They try to be funny several times in the script, but it comes off lame.

Do not waste your time on this one.

2 out of 5 stubs.

The Exorcist

Released: 1973
Horror
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair
Running Time: 122 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  After exhausting all other medical methods, a desperate and scared mother tries the church to help her very disturbed daughter to feel better.


So, I know that this is on the top of a lot of scariest movies of all time lists.  I know there's so much talk about this movie and it's well respected in the horror community.  I guess, for these reasons, I was expecting a lot of the movie.  I expected at least to be scared once.

First off, if you haven't seen it, here's a quick rundown.
An actress is temporarily living in Washington D.C. shooting a movie.  She lives with two housekeepers, a personal assistant, and her 12 year old daughter, Regan.  The father is estranged for reasons never explained and lives in Europe.
Meanwhile,

A young priest is losing his faith after struggling to come to terms with his elderly mother's terminal illness.  He's been trained in psychology and used to be a boxer.  He's getting ready to possibly leave the church.
Meanwhile,

An elderly priest in Iraq is on an archaeological dig site.  While there, the team finds strange objects, but the most strange and focused on, is a small carved figurine, possibly resembling some ancient representation of the devil.
The elderly priest takes the figurine with him telling one of his associates he must do something and has to leave Iraq.  The figurine is never seen again, nor do we know what happens to it, or what, if any power it has.

Meanwhile, the actress' daughter is getting sicker and the mother is getting quite worried.  She begins taking the girl to all sorts of doctors, who can't find anything physically wrong with her.  Then they turn to psychologists for help.  After every medical possibility has been exhausted the medical team refers the actress to the church for an exorcism.

The actress' family is not religious but finds a cross under her daughter pillow in bed.  She asks everyone who put it there, but no one confesses.

The girl gets more and more ill, violent, and very dangerous.

The movie concludes with the big exorcism scene.

I can see why some people think this movie is super scary.  The idea of an innocent young child being turned into a deadly strong, mentally strained, physically abusive force is a terrible idea to live through for a parent.  Also for the religious, the idea of the devil himself taking over your child is also difficult to imagine, but for me, it wasn't so scary.

I thought some of the special effects were good.  The acting was solid, the story's essence was intriguing, but I think they left some of the things to be interpreted a bit too vague.  The statue in the desert and the small figurine was shown, but no connections were made, and nothing ever explained.

The cause of this particular girl's possession was never explained either.  Was she ever near the figurine?  How do those things connect?  Are they supposed to?  Does it have something to do with the house?  Who knows?

Overall, a good movie, but not the scariest of all time for me.
3 out of 5 stubs.

Shame

Released: 2011
Drama
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: NC-17

The breakdown: A man struggles with facing his sex addiction when his sister unexpectedly needs a place to live for awhile.

I had never heard of this movie and I like Michael Fassbender so I was interested.

Fassbender plays a man who's pretty selfish.  He has no real relationship with a woman and lives alone in New York City.  He works a normal white collar job and no one suspects he's a sex addict.  He's constantly looking at porn magazines, on the internet, or pornographic movies.  He also does this at work and seems to take several breaks a day to go to the bathroom to masturbate.  He hires prostitutes to have sex with at his apartment, or sometimes finds women at bars and has sex with them wherever, the street, or a hotel.

So once his sister drops in on him, saying she's broken up with her boyfriend and needs a place to live for a bit, he's not so happy.  She's very needy and not financial responsible as she has a job as a singer and only gets work sporadically.  She's younger then him and immature.  You get the feeling she's not capable of taking care of herself in any way.

Eventually Fassbender's obsession comes to light to his sister as she walks in on him masturbating, sees his live camera chat with a sex website, and other things, so he's a bit embarrassed, but does not ask for help.

Things escalate when he makes a move on one of his co-workers, and after they show his sister is a bit more mentally unstable then originally thought.

The title comes from the last scenes of the movie where Fassbender and his sister really go over the edge separately one night in New York.  I won't ruin it for you if you want to see this one.

I give it 4 out of 5 for being a strong character study of Fassbender's character.  He's an excellent actor and one of my personal favorites, and his talent is not wasted in this movie.  I did have a problem with the director staying too long in the moment with some of the camera work and scenes....It just didn't make sense sometimes and makes the movie's pace slow down too much.  The most unappealing part of the movie was Carey Mullligan singing "New York, New York" originally recorded by Frank Sinatra about 4 counts slower.  TERRIBLE!  And she sings the entire song, so it's too boring and one of those long moments that could've easily been condensed.

As I said, it is NC-17 so expect a LOT of sex scenes, a LOT of nudity (including several full frontal shots of Michael Fassbender), and a lot of cursing.  If you can handle this kind of movie, I highly recommend it.

 

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Released: 2003
Drama
Director: Peter Webber
Starring: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson
Running Time: 100 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Johannes Vermeer paints a picture of his teenage maid that he is falling in love with, even though he's already married with several children.  Totally a work of fiction based on a book written by Tracy Chevalier with the same title.

A young girl is forced to leave her family to help them make money since her father is blind and cannot work any longer.  Her mother finds a residence for her to be a maid in, in town.  She starts working for a large family with many children, a wife who is always pregnant and Johannes Vermeer as the head of the household.  The maid is naive and quiet, but does her job well despite being watched by everyone.  Her beauty and youth make the Mrs. very uncomfortable and when Johannes makes her his assistant, the wife really gets jealous.
The painter and maid spend lots of alone time together in the attic where he does all his work.  They are attracted to each other, but there's another young man who's the butcher's son who likes this maid as well.  The butcher's son warns her not to be seduced by the older man.
Unfortunately the painter sees she has a good eye for color and understands the painter a lot better than his own wife.  He teaches her a lot about how color paint is made and where it comes from. Eventually, the richest man in town notices the young maid as well and wants a picture done of her with intentions of having her for himself after the painting is done.
The eldest girl in the house wants this new maid gone, so does the wife and mother in law, so she has the deck stacked against her.  Vermeer has her sit for him, borrowing his wife's pearl earrings for her to use in the picture.  Secrets finally come to light at the end of the film and the conclusion I'll leave for you guys to discover.

Not a lot is know about the "Master of Light" Johannes Vermeer.  I studied his paintings in college and was amazed at how well he could truly control light in his works.  His nick name is given with good reason, a lot of his paintings look photo realistic as far as the sunlight is concerned.  "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a well known piece of Vermeer's and there is a lot of mystery surrounding it.  No one knows who the girl is or where she came from, but the look on her face certainly tells a lot to the viewer.  Vermeer might have lusted after this girl, or had an affair, but there is a sense of intimacy there on her face.  Truth is, there's not a lot of information of Vermeer's life and how he was as a person, but the speculation of who this young girl is, was the inspiration for the book that this movie was based on.

It was an interesting idea for a movie.
3 out of 5 for being good, but not spectacular.

A Painted House

First Published: 2000
Drama
Pages: 384
Author: John Grisham

The breakdown:  A young boy named Luke is only 7 years old when his whole world changes.  He lives with his family on a small cotton farm and life is difficult.  One summer, his life is full of secrets, some big, and some small, but he carries all of them with him.


So I read this book because I needed something for the plane ride and my dad recommended it to me after he read it and loved it.  I was expecting a lot and was pretty let down.

I really didn't like the ending, but overall, thought it was kinda' boring.  I'll tell you the short version and let you decide.

A small town farming community is plagued with murders involving dangerous strangers in the early 1950's.  One family, the Chandlers, and especially the youngest Chandler, Luke is having a lot of bad news thrown on his shoulders and expected to keep it all to himself.  The family farms cotton and life is hard for them.  They barely have anything, but really just want to break even by farming and selling their crop.  In one house lives, Luke, his parents, and his dad's parents all together.  When picking season comes they need a lot more hands to help out before the winter comes.  They hire what they call the "hill" people who come down from bigger towns up north to make some extra money.  The family they hire are called the Spruills and they make a camp on their front yard for the season.  They also hire the Mexicans.  They live in the Chandler's barn and there are 10 of them.  Within the group of the Mexicans is a dangerous man named Cowboy who carries a switchblade and doesn't talk much.  Luke tries talking to him, but gets some bad vibes off him and stays away.  Within the Spruills, there's a dangerous teenage boy named Hank who never knows when to quit.  He's got a mean spirit and Luke stays as far away from him as possible.  But within the Spruills, is also Tally a teenage girl that Luke is in love with.  She gets him to go on long midnight walks with her when he's not supposed to leave the house, but he'd do anything to spend time with her.  Eventually, in town, on a Saturday night, a fight breaks out with some really nasty brothers.  Pretty soon it's 2 on 1 and Hank steps in to get the town boy free of the 2 mean brothers.  After he slinks off, he fights the 2 brothers, and then a third one joins in.  Problem is Hank never stops fighting even after the brothers are all down and he takes a 2x4 to one of the brothers and kills him.  Luke does not want to talk about this to anyone as Hank lives on his farm and if the police arrest him, he knows the rest of the family will leave and the Chandlers will be very short handed picking cotton.

I won't bother telling you the rest.  It's continually a boring book (to me) where you expect more of the story and it just never appears.  The ending is a bit open where you're not sure what's happened with certain characters and that really bugged me.

2 out of 5 bookmarks for being well written, but the characters and subject matter are just not interesting enough for me.  I say skip it.

50 First Dates

Released: 2004
Comedy (but not really)
Director: Peter Segal
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A man falls in love with a woman that cannot build new memories.

I treated myself to this piece of crap last night.  I do not like Adam Sandler because he doesn't actually act.  He just treats every movie like what would Adam Sandler do in this situation and says it or does it.  He doesn't actually play a character, he just plays himself in every movie I've ever seen him in.  That's not really acting.

I also don't like Drew Barrymore.  She was probably best in Firestarter and E.T. and then it was all downhill from there where her acting has gotten worse and worse.  I don't even think she's convincing as the spokesperson for Cover Girl Cosmetics.

So these two together make a really terrible couple.  The script is not funny, the plot is totally unrealistic, and the "acting" from the main two leads is abysmal.

So here's the plot.
Adam Sandler is supposed to be this hot playboy on one of Hawaii's islands who sleeps around with tourists and never wants to settle down.  He pretends to be things like secret agents and lies through his teeth to women.  He's really a veterinarian and does genuinely seem to care about animals.

One day he goes into a restaurant and sees Drew Barrymore's character.  They start talking and hit it off.  They agree to meet the next morning at the same place, and when they do, she acts like she's never met him.  He's pulled aside by the waitress and she explains that due to a head injury during a car accident last year, Barrymore cannot keep new memories.  She has total short term memory loss after one day.  So while she sleeps, she loses everything that happened the day before.  She wakes up everyday and thinks it's the day right before the accident, her father's birthday.

Sandler finds out that her family has been lying to her as to not upset her and just pretends everyday is the father's birthday.  They watch the same movie, eat the same meal, do the same things, all for her benefit.  Adam Sandler decides he wants to pursue a relationship with her and makes a video that she can watch everyday so she's up to date on what she's missed over the past year and it's explained to her that she had an accident and lost her memory.

Over time, he falls in love with her, and they sort of date.  The family approves of him and he asks her to marry him.  She says yes, but of course, forgets everything the next morning.   She eventually breaks up with him, saying that she's holding him back from the boat trip that he wanted to take for the past 10 years and that it will be too hard for him to take care of her everyday.  He reluctantly agrees to her wishes and he gets ready for his boat trip.  Her father comes to see him off in port and says she's living now in a care facility for memory loss and teaching art to the other patients.

SPOILER**********If you want to see this movie stop right here.






He sees this as a good sign and leaves his boat to go find her.  He asks her if she now remembers him and she still doesn't, but she says she dreams of him all the time without understanding why.
They get married, have a baby and sail around the world with her father in tow.

Somehow I know this movie appeals to some people, but for me, it's complete rubbish.
Do NOT see this movie.
1 out of 5 for the animal actors.

Peace

Today is difficult for many.
There's not much to say to ease pain or suffering within a human being.
Everyone deals with horrific things like September 11th differently.
Time always lessens the pain to a level where we can all at least function to get through
another day.
Today, as always, I hope for peace for all of us and the rest of the world.
Peace be with you.

In Bruges

Released: 2008
Drama, Crime, Comedy
Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A hitman's first job goes terribly wrong as he kills an innocent bystander as well as his target.  His boss sends him to Bruges, Belgium to lay low for a few weeks with another more experienced hit man.

I wasn't expecting to watch this movie, but we only have one tv and my husband was getting ready to watch it so I sat down with him to see it.

I must say I hate Colin Farrell, always have, always will.  He really tries in this movie to be a good actor, but he just can't get there.
Anyway, he plays a new hit man and on his very first job, he kills a little kid by accident when he shoots his target.  His boss, played by Fiennes, is not pleased at all and sends him on a little trip with another more experience hit man played by Gleeson.  Farrell was definitely the weakest link here when you see the other two real actors perform.  But he still can't ruin the movie, because it is worth watching.
So while the two hit men are out on this trip to a very old Medieval city, Gleeson wants to take in the sites and enjoy himself, while Farrell can barely stand how bored he is.  While they are there, they both kinda' wonder what it is they are doing exactly   It's possible they are there to do another job, or maybe it's just to take a break, they really don't know.  Things start to get interesting when their boss calls Gleeson and tells him what the purpose of the visit is, and when Farrell finds a woman that he wants to date in town.

I won't tell you anymore since this is a gem worth finding for yourself.

I give it 3 and 1/2 out of 5 for Gleeson and Fiennes.  There are some genuinely funny and thought provoking moments in this one.  Be prepared for sex talk, violence, and lots of swearing.

50/50

Released: 2011
Drama, Comedy
Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogan
Running Time: 100 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A young man discovers he has cancer and finds out what kind of person he really is.

For some reason this movie got really good reviews, but it was just ok for me.

A man in his late 20's finds out he has a rare form of cancer.  He goes through the beginning of the treatment trying to stay away from his family, living with a girl who clearly isn't too much into him, and tolerating a high school buddy who's only obsession is sleeping with women.

After the chemo starts, things start to unravel as his sessions with his counselor help him see want he wants out of life.

If you really want to see it, I won't discuss the rest of the movie with you, but I say skip it all together.  It certainly isn't the worst movie, or the best movie, but just in the middle of the road for me.  I did like the greyhound dog in the movie.

2 out of 5 for just being so-so (no pun intended).  I should mention this is based on a true story of some friend of Seth Rogan's.  Even if it's a true story, it's still just so-so.

Cars 2

Released: 2011
Animated
Director: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the cable guy, Michael Caine
Running Time: 106 minutes
Rated: R (just kidding!) G

The breakdown:  Some of the residents of Radiator Springs go on a world wide trip, following Lightning McQueen around on a long tour of races.  Mater gets mistaken for a secret agent and hilarity (is supposed to) ensues.

I usually like Pixar films, and I really did like the first Cars movie, but this one just didn't feel the same.  I enjoyed the first movie, probably because of the lovable characters and the fish-out-of-water story, but with a focus on the tow truck, Mater, this movie falls flat and ends up being boring.

This movie starts out like a Cars version of a James Bond film, where we see secret (car) spies on a dangerous mission out in the middle of the ocean.  Turns out a British intelligence agent is on the hunt for a bad guy and he ends up escaping any danger in the opening scenes.
As far as the characters of Radiator Springs, Lightning McQueen has just taken a break to go back and visit them when Mater accidentally springs into motion a new world tour race for McQueen to take part in.  McQueen takes his friends with him as a pit crew, and they travel all over the world.  The British agents are also on this race tour looking for their bad guys, and mistake Mater for an American secret agent and you can imagine where that goes.  There's a lot of chases, and action, but there's too much focus on Mater, and one film is trying to be too many things.  Plus I always say that most films with 2 directors doesn't work out right.

I say skip this one and just rewatch the first.
2 out of 5 for good voice acting and Michael Caine.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Released: 2011
Drama
Director: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock
Running Time: 129 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A child loses his father to the 9-11 attacks and proceeds to go on a mission throughout New York to try to find out what a key that his father left behind opens.

I had a good feeling this was going to be a crappy movie when I saw the previews for it.
For one thing, the kid that's the main character tried very hard to enunciate every single word in his voice overs instead of just talking like a normal human being, but be clear.  It was distracting and very annoying.
For another, it uses 9-11 as a plot device and unless it's an excellent story with great characters it shouldn't be done.
For example, the story line is that the kid loses his father in the attacks on the World Trade Centers.  This wasn't necessary for the story.  Why not just make his father die in a subway accident, or have a heart attack, or get mugged on the streets and then shot?  There's a lot of ways this boy could've lost his father through death, but why choose this event?  I'll tell you why, because the author probably thought people would pay more attention to the book he wrote and the movie that was made from it, if he had worked in the worst terrorist attack in world history.  There's no good reason for it, and the only reason I can see is profit for the author...sad, very sad.  If it had been a true story, that's different, but it's not at all.  Although, I'm sure some people got that impression.

So here's the plot.
A family lives in New York.  On 9-11 the father dies in one of the buildings that collapses.  He calls his wife, and the house leaving multiple messages that he's ok, but the 6th message is cut off when the building collapses and it's presumed that he died.  The boy has some sort of disease that resembles Asperger's Syndrome which makes for difficulties with social interaction and intense interest in a few subjects.  The boy hides the answering machine from his mother and never tells her of it, thinking he's protecting her from pain.  This really pissed me off.
A year later, they are both trying to deal with the loss of a loved one.  The boy lashes out and tells his mother he wished she had been in the building and died and she agreed.  Ungrateful little bastard.
This boy goes through his father's things looking for a way to feel closer to him as they did all sorts of games and scavenger hunts while he was living.  He finds a vase and accidentally breaks it, which reveals a key with the word Black written on it.
The boy methodically meets all people with the last name Black in the New York area and tries to find out what the key does and what his father was trying to tell him.
It turns out, a man named William had sold the vase to the boy's father and the father had no idea the key was inside the vase at all.
The boy is upset that he's been chasing around a meaningless key that had nothing to do with his dead father.
He goes to a swing set in the park where he used to spend time with his dad.  His father had told him at the beginning of the film how he had swung there often when he was alone and how much he enjoyed it.  The boy, assumingly due to his disease, is afraid of swings, bridges, and other things, but finally gets on it and realizes it's fun.  He turns the swing over and finds a note from his father telling him how proud he is of him.
His mother is going through the boy's things and sees a scrapbook he's made of all the people he met and of his father.  At the beginning of the film, they show a man falling through air, I'm assuming they are trying to give the impression the father jumped as he was on the 105th floor.  At the end of the film the mother sees the boy has made a pop book and shows a picture of the WTC buildings with a man falling up into the building instead of down and dying.  Both references made are that the father jumps, but why would the voice mail that the father left earlier in the film, end when the buildings collapsed while he was talking if he jumped?  (The boy was home when the last call came in and he didn't answer the phone, so he's watching the tv and seeing the building collapse as his father's voice stops and the call ends.  It's pretty obvious what happened to the audience.)  Inconsistencies I can accept in SOME movies, but this one begins and ends with a huge mistake.  You either make the father die by jumping, or he dies when the building collapses but don't make yourself look foolish by making such a huge error in a major motion picture.
The end.

To tell the truth, I hated the kid from the beginning and the 9-11 plot device really pissed me off so I couldn't watch the film for longer than a few minutes at the time.  So I just fast forwarded through most of it and stopped when it looked like something was important.

Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock were good as usual, but this boy was really annoying and I didn't care about his character at all.  The movie was mostly boring and incredibly slow paced.  They should've titled the film, Extremely Boring and Incredibly Slow Paced.

Wayyyyyyy too long, wayyyyyy too annoying child actor, and nothing worth watching.  I can only assume it got nominated for an Oscar or 2 because it had some reference to 9-11.

SKIP this one please.
1 out of 5 for Bullock, Hanks, and some minor special effects.  What a complete waste of time!!!!!

Crate & Barrel's Halloween selection, or lack thereof

If you read my last post, you'll know I wasn't impressed by Bath and Body Works Halloween stuff this year.  Well, they are a little bit better than Crate & Barrel, if you can believe it.

Maybe I'm not remembering right what Crate & Barrel had last year, but it had to be better and more then what they threw out this year.
Here's the highlights of this season's offerings....

A cheap and small set of cupcake stencils.  These are $3.95

and these stir sticks are only $5.95

And these are the highlights? You say.

Yeah, the other stuff is a random coffee mug, a plate or bowl, some candles or candle holders shaped like gourds, and a pumpkin shaped vase or two.

Nothing stellar, everything lack-luster.

It's almost to sad to talk about anymore.

If you want some exciting home/kitchen stuff for Fall, check out Williams Sonoma or Pottery Barn.

I'm so disappointed by Bath and Body Works Halloween stuff

Well, my title says it all.
I've been waiting for weeks to see what was going to come of Bath and Body Works Halloween season merchandise and I can easily say, it's not great.  It's not even that much.
Last season ('11) they had all sorts of scents, candles, candle holders, and little decorative touches that were totally irresistible and cute.  I bought quite a few items there and felt satisfied at their selection.  It erroneously built me up to expect some similar things this year, but I was let down.
I'm not sure if someone just thought no one really bought them last year, or no one cared this year, but the selection is pitifully small.

About 2 (count them 2) new candle holders:
One being this haunted house that holds 3 small candles inside it

Yes, it's cute but it's also $50.00!
Then there's Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein

The bride of Frankenstein is new, but Frank was around last year.  The only difference is that his mouth is a little more open and his stitches have moved.  Both of them hold small candles and are $6.50 each.

They have a few more things, but the choice is so small this year, I just feel really underwhelmed.
They don't even have any cutely decorated Halloween candles to offer.  They have the usual hand anti-bacterial tubes, the soaps, a soap cover, autumn scented candles....that's it.

I'm wondering if this is really it or is there more that they're hiding, only to be released closer to Halloween?  Somehow, I doubt this, but I can hold out hope for a little bit longer.

Sheridan's

I've wanted to visit a restaurant I've seen in town for about 4 years now.
I finally got my chance a couple of weeks ago and then just this last week I visited it again for lunch.

The first time I went, I had something off their brunch menu.
A chicken, bacon, cheese panini and man was it good.

Grilled chicken, slices of green apple, pieces of bacon, and smothered in melted cheese.
Really, really tasty.  On the side was a pickle and some sweet potato chips.

This time I decided to have the pulled pork sandwich with some sweeter sweet potato chips and a pickle.  Also really tasty, although this time the sweet potato chips had a dusting of sugar and cinnamon on them that made them super yummy.  The pulled pork was covered in bar-b-que sauce and the pork was robust and not too fatty.

They have seating inside as well as a garden seating area outside.  They are closed on Monday's but open for brunch/breakfast/lunch and dinner for the rest of the week.

They also run their own boutique hotel attached to the restaurant and offer wine tasting along with cute ideas like date night Thursdays.

Sheridanhouseandcafe.com

Located at:
5133 South Lake Drive
Cudahy, WI 53110

I'm starting my own business

After not working for the past few years, I'm pretty much fed up with the job application process and getting passed up for employment.  My only option now is to hire myself.
I've tried to think of what would be the least amount of work for me, i.e. doing something I love and selling it.
I could write my own love sci-fi story, which I still might, but in the meantime, it's Halloween products.

I've decided to take wooden plaques, hat boxes, cigar or recipe boxes and paint them using professional paints, brushes, and stencils.  I've already seen these sold on places like Etsy or Ebay, but I plan on mine giving a bit more visual punch.  The graphics I've seen used are pretty cutesy and I want to offer some that are a bit more sinister.

I'll show you examples of my work as soon as I've completed some.  I'm currently stocking up on supplies and finding the right techniques.  Don't worry, you'll able to purchase them as well, somehow, through my blog.
Wish me luck!
And I must find a name.....Do you have any ideas?
Put your suggestion in the comments section immediately following this entry.

I Love A Rainy Night

Just like Eddie Rabbit's 1980 weather anthem, I do love a rainy night.

It seems to be normal to be in love with water in general for the human species.  Though I think most people say they love to be near the ocean, river, or lakes; I love those too, but rain has always been the most accessible natural water source for me.

Where I grew up there used to be fantastic afternoon rain storms with great lightning shows, so it probably helps that the rain was a treat for me when it happened; and it happened a lot more in my childhood then any other time in my history, so it's nostalgic as well.

There's something about the energy that surrounds the storm.  The changing barometric pressure, the winds, thunder and lightning that usually precede the rain.  I suppose it's like a lot of other great stress relievers in the sense that you build up a lot of pressure, just to let it all go.
Same with yoga, and shooting guns for me.  Same process.  Mother nature revs up and then lets go with the unleashing of rain showers.  Plus rain smells great, clean and natural.

I love rain storms no matter what the season, and rainy days can be just as great to me as sunny ones.

What's your favorite weather?
What's the perfect temperature for you?

Here I was thinking they were advanced and stuff

What Was Behind Mysterious Collapse of the Mayan Empire?

By Wynne Parry

 

• A temple in Tikal

The city states of the ancient Mayan empire flourished in southern Mexico and northern Central America for about six centuries. Then, around A.D. 900 Mayan civilization disintegrated.

Two new studies examine the reasons for the collapse of the Mayan culture, finding the Mayans themselves contributed to the downfall of the empire.

Scientists have found that drought played a key role, but the Mayans appear to have exacerbated the problem by cutting down the jungle canopy to make way for cities and crops, according to researchers who used climate-model simulations to see how much deforestation aggravated the drought.

"We're not saying deforestation explains the entire drought, but it does explain a substantial portion of the overall drying that is thought to have occurred," said the study's lead author Benjamin Cook, a climate modeler at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in a statement. [Dry and Dying: Images of Drought]

Using climate-model simulations, he and his colleagues examined how much the switch from forest to crops, such as corn, would alter climate. Their results, detailed online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggested that when deforestation was at its maximum, it could account for up to 60 percent of the drying. (The switch from trees to corn reduces the amount of water transferred from the soil to the atmosphere, which reduces rainfall.)

Other recent research takes a more holistic view.
"The ninth-century collapse and abandonment of the Central Maya Lowlands in the Yucatán peninsular region were the result of complex human–environment interactions," writes this team in a study published Monday (Aug 20) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team, led by B.L. Turner, a social scientist at Arizona State University, concurs that by clearing the forest, the Mayans may have aggravated a natural drought, which spiked about the time the empire came to an end and population declined dramatically.

But this is just one contributing factor to their demise, Turner and colleagues write, pointing out that the reconfiguration of the landscape may also have led to soil degradation. Other archaeological evidence points to a landscape under stress, for instance, the wood of the sapodilla tree, favored as construction beams, was no longer used at the Tikal and Calakmul sites beginning in A.D. 741. Larger mammals, such as white-tailed deer, appear to have declined at the end of empire.

Social and economic dynamics also contributed. Trade routes shifted from land transit across the Yucatán Peninsula to sea-born ships. This change may have weakened the city states, which were contending with environmental changes. Faced with mounting challenges, the ruling elites, a very small portion of the population, were no longer capable of delivering what was expected of them, and conflict increased.

"The old political and economic structure dominated by semidivine rulers decayed," the team writes. "Peasants, artisan – craftsmen, and others apparently abandoned their homes and cities to find better economic opportunities elsewhere in the Maya area."
------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe they were more like us then I thought.

Cowboys & Aliens

Released: 2011
Sci-fi, Western
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Daniel Craig
Running Time: 119 minutes
Rated:PG-14

The breakdown:  A man with amnesia wakes up in the desert to find a strange metal bracelet on his arm and a few cowboys threatening him.

This movie wasn't as bad as its ratings really.
Daniel Craig wakes up in the desert and can't remember who he is or what happened.  All he knows is that he has this metal bracelet on his arm and a few cowboys harassing him.  He kills the cowboys and rides into the nearest town.  There he finds more trouble as it seems he's wanted by the law for murder.  As soon as he's arrested and about to be shipped away by stagecoach, there's a little alien invasion.  Three spaceships come along and burn up the town, taking prisoners while they attack.
Pretty soon the amnesiac cowboy and the big businessman in town team up to get people who were kidnapped back.

The special effects were good, the story kinda' got silly in a few scenes, but overall, I give it a thumbs up.

2 and 1/2 out of 5 for being something different and for being a bit silly in places as well.

Dream House

Released: 2011
Mystery, Thriller
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A family moves into a new house that they discover has a murderous past.

I saw that this film had terrible reviews but I figured I'd watch it anyway.  It was a bit messy and muddled, but I've seen a lot worse.
Overall, it wasn't great and I really can't recommend but I'll review it for you here anyway.

An editor quits his job to spend more time with his family in a new house in the country.
While they are getting situated they discover there's been a terrible murder there where the whole family had been shot.  They try to find out more about it, but it seems the small town just doesn't want to talk to them about what happened.  A neighbor is approached by the man of the house, but she seems to be quite distant and doesn't really want to say too much to him.
They find a man outside their house windows looking in, but can't catch him.
As things are revealed, the movie gets a bit more convoluted.

I would say skip this movie if you've either never heard of it, or just don't want to waste 90 minutes of your life.  Like I said, I've seen worse, but I still can't recommend it.

1 and 1/2 out of 5 for a romantic and impressive physical feat that Daniel Craig does, but a muddled and unfinished story.

Dead Man Walking

Released: 1995
Drama
Director: Tim Robbins
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn
Running Time: 122 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A nun helps a man on death row who is looking for a way to avoid the death sentence.

I knew this had Oscar nominations and it was on cable so I watched it.

It wasn't bad although the subject matter is difficult.
Two young teenagers are brutally murdered out in the woods while on a date.  Two men are held accountable for the crime.  One man gets a life sentence, while the other gets the death penalty.
Sean Penn plays the man on death row and states that he did not murder them, that it was the other man who is serving a life term.
He reaches out to a sister and asks for her help.  She's never done anything like this before so the process is all new to her.  She gets to know the killer and tries to help him appeal his sentence.  She also gets to know the families of the victims and sympathizes with both sides.
While they try everything to get his execution lifted, time is slowly passing by and he only has 6 days to live.

It was a solid movie without any negatives really.  I can understand why it was nominated.
Good acting, well written, this is a good movie.
3 and 1/2 out of 5 for this one.

Dying to Live Last Rites

Released: 2012
Horror
Author: Kim Paffenroth
Pages: 240

The last in a series of 3 books, this continues on with the lives of two living and two dead people.

This is certainly the strongest story of the three books and one might be better off just reading this one and be done with the series.
The first book was written from one survivor man's experiences.
The second book was written from a human girl's experiences and a male zombies experiences.
This book is written from 4 people's perspectives.  One female and one male living couple, and one female and one male zombie couple.
They start off on a boat and the illness of the living female makes them look for land with living people to help her feel better.
This endangers all of their lives as these people they find living in a new city are not the best circumstances to live with for all of our storytellers.

Basically, this book looks deeper into living people and how they deal with situations concerning zombies....I mean smart zombies that are somewhat people, not so much flesh eating monsters anymore.

It wasn't bad.

I'll give it 3 and 1/2 out of 5 for finally being a good story and for being the strongest writing in the series.

Almost Famous

Released: 2000
Comedy, Drama
Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson
Running Time: 122 minutes
Rated: R
 
The breakdown:  A smart teenage boy gets his break into journalism by traveling with a rock band in the 1970's.

This movie's been around for a while and I had heard some things about it, but didn't really want to see it.  I just watched it out of boredom.
It's not great, but it's not terrible either.  Kinda' in the middle for me.
Set in the early 1970's this boy, who's pretty smart and skipped a few grades in school, learns to love music.  His sister gives him all her albums when she flees the house from her suffocating and controlling mother.  He also likes writing and in a few years time, he puts the two together.  He gets his first assignment for a local magazine and his talent develops from there.  Soon, Rolling Stone wants him to do a cover story for Stillwater, although, they don't know he's only 15 when they hire him over the phone.
He travels with the band and sees a lot of things a 15 year should not, but he's smart and avoids all the really bad stuff.  The band sees him as a friend sometimes, but knows he's a journalist and will write whatever he sees, so they keep some distance from him for a while.  When groupies get thrown in, the boy ends up falling for one in particular, but she's a bit older than him and just can't see him that way.
Basically this is a coming of age story for the boy, and for the band it's a quick look at their ups and downs together.

3 and a 1/2 out of 5 for being an ok, but most likely, forgettable movie.

Grosse Pointe Blank

Released: 1997
Comedy
Director: George Armitage
Starring: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A professional hit man comes back home to his 10 year high school reunion, his old girlfriend, and to do one more job.

John Cusack is a hit man living in L.A.  He had a rival for most of his jobs and his rival comes to him to suggest they work together, but Cusack refuses.  Meanwhile, his secretary (played by his real sister Joan) tells him of his invitation to his 10 year reunion from Grosse Pointe High School and encourages him to go.
He is a bit nervous about going and running into the girl he stood up at senior prom, but fate intervenes, and it turns out, his next job is to kill someone in his old hometown of Detroit.  So off he goes to find his target and attend his reunion.

His old girlfriend is a DJ at the local radio station and he talks to her for the first time in 10 years, live, on the air.  Discussion was a little jarring for him, as she was understandably rough on him.

He notices a couple of guys following him in an old car and thinks he must have a tail.

He goes back to his childhood home to find out it's been destroyed and turned into a mini mart.

There's a couple of people I know that recommended this film to me, so I thought it'd be funny, but it wasn't too funny to me.  I think I laughed once, but it wasn't anything special.

I say you can skip it.  2 and 1/2 out of 5 for at least, not being the average plot.

The Terminal

Released: 2004
Drama
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Running Time: 128 minutes
Rated:  PG-13

The breakdown:  Inspired by a similar story, a man gets stuck in an airport for almost year as his home country broke out into war while he was en route to America.  A political loophole doesn't allow him into the United States, but also does not permit him to go back home either.

So the real person is named Merhan Nasseri and he was stuck between Iran and France, although the United Kingdom was his final destination that he never made it to.
His circumstances are different than the movie, but this man lived in an airport for over 17 years.

In the movie, when war breaks out in a small Russian country, their government is in crisis and the United States no longer recognizes it as a country.  So by the time the flight carrying Tom Hanks arrives, he cannot be allowed into the U.S. even though he has a Visa, and also cannot go back home due to legalities and policies, even though, he has a valid passport.  He doesn't speak English and cannot really understand it, so he's on his own.  The head of immigrants at the airport hopes the situation will blow over soon so he can get this guy out of his airport, but honestly doesn't know what to do with him.  He's up for a promotion so Hanks is the last type of situation he wants to deal with right now. 

Hanks is stuck in a small section of the airport that resembles a mall with shops and restaurants, but nowhere for him to sleep.  He makes due with what he can, and eventually finds some employees that care about him, he even gets a job at the airport.

The movie is certainly funny in parts, and sad as well, as a lot of the things they show are true human behavior, and more specifically American behavior towards foreigners.

Hanks is great as usual doing a very good Russian accent and flawless acting.  The story is good as well, so it's easy to recommend.

4 out of 5 for a strong clear story, with good actors and full of touching moments.  See it.

Dying to Live Life Sentence

Released: 2008
Horror
Author: Kim Paffenroth
Pages: 210

In a series of three books, this is the second one.
The first book was told from one main characters perspective, shortly after the end of his world and the beginning of the zombie era.
A major virus, or infection has caused the entire world, presumably, to fall ill, die, and become zombies.  After he finds a baby and father on a roof top one day he helps them into his community of survivors that helped him.

This book picks up from the grown up baby's point of view.
The baby grows up in the community and only knows a world where the walking dead are always a threat, learns how to shoot and fight to survive and carries a handgun at 12.
Someone else in the group tries to learn more about zombies as he grows up and finds out that a few of them are not like the others.  Some zombies are intelligent and can remember some things from their past life.

The book is now told from two very different points of view, one human, and one zombie.

I didn't think the first book was anything special, it was just ok.
The second book is down right ridiculous with the introduction of the idea that some zombies could somehow think and have memories, to even be friendly towards people and suppress the urges to eat them.

At best, zombies capabilities should end at being able to pick up a rock to use as a primitive weapon to break something.  That's a rational idea for a zombies intelligence and where it should end.  A zombie keeping a journal is something all together hard to swallow.

I realize the author is trying to make up some different stories here, but this is pushing it way too far.
Zombie lore has kinda' been set.  You get ill, or bit, you die.  You get reanimated as a zombie and want to eat people.  You don't think.  You must get shot in the head, or destroy the brain to put down a zombie.  You don't fall in love as a zombie, you don't talk, you don't type on a computer, and you certainly don't write journals.

This book was unintentionally funny at times, but I finished it.  Overall, it was way worse than the first one.

Do not waste your time on this book.
1 out of 5 for outlandish ideas, even by science fiction standards.

In & Out

Released: 1997
Comedy
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  After a movie star names one of his high school teachers as gay, everyone in town questions him if he is, even though he's supposed to marry his girlfriend of 3 years just a few days away.

I knew this might not be too funny, but I finished it anyway.
I was right.  I didn't laugh but one time, and the movie isn't very good.

Kevin Kline plays this English teacher at a small town high school.  One of his former students went to Hollywood and became a big time actor.  So when he wins the Oscar for his portrayal of a gay soldier he gives a memorable speech.  Especially the part about how his old high school teacher meant a lot to him, and he was gay.
Kline is supposed to get married to a woman he's been dating for 3 years just a few days after the Oscars, so things get a bit tense between them and she's confused.
Everyone in town was watching the Oscars, so word travels fast and the teacher denies it. 
Then a few days later, he starts to question why did his former student believe that about him and he starts to search within himself for the true answers.

I know the movie was trying to have a positive message to be yourself, no matter what that means, but it just wasn't funny, and is forgettable.

Skip it.
2 out of 5 for good acting and I love Frank Oz, but he didn't do a super job with this one.

Jane Erye

Released: 2011
Drama, Romance
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte, (though I'm not sure how faithfully, since I've never read the book) a rich foul-tempered employer starts to care for his young new employee, the governess of his adopted child.

I had confused this type of story with a lot of Jane Austen novels I had read and hated.  I thought this movie and time period piece would bore me to death, and it started off that way, but much improved over the next 20 minutes or so.

Jane Eyre has a very difficult childhood that's best forgotten by her, and by the time she's 18 or 19, takes off into the real world to have a better adulthood.  She becomes the governess of a rich man's adopted French daughter and schools her.  The master of the household is ill tempered and seems to be cold and unforgiving at first.  Jane is good at drawing and that seems to get through to him on some level after asking her about her work.
Slowly the two get to be good friends, but it seems he wants a bit more, and she, being so young and without any experience of men, may not be catching onto this.
She starts to care for him as well, but doesn't seem to know what to do with her feelings and then it seems, he starts to court a wealthy young single lady that comes to the estate. 
Not only is she confused as to how to express her feelings, she also discovers a secret he's been hiding and it threatens to tear them apart for good.

I can't tell you anymore because you really should see this if you haven't.
I know this story's been around for a long time, I know there's a lot of different film adaptations out there, but this one, I think is very well done and entertaining.

Considering the fact that I went into it thinking it was going to be terrible and almost loathing it before 20 minutes was up, I ended up really enjoying the sexual tension between the two leads and the story itself is very intriguing.  Michael Fassbender was flawless as usual, the movie is evenly paced, and the romantic tension is some of the best I've seen in quite a while.

If you love a good romance, this is a classic one, but be patient with it as there is a lot of old English spoken and sometimes, the scenes can be just a tinnney bit annoying (like when people try to sing.)

4 out of 5 for being a solid story with great acting by all and intensely romantic scenes and dialogue.  It really did sweep me off my feet!  Well, I mean, Michael Fassbender is in it and you cannot go wrong with him playing a romantic lead, you just can't.

Dying to Live

Released: 2007
Horror, Sci-fi
Author: Kim Paffenroth
Pages: 256

The breakdown:  A tale of the end of the world and how the survivors are trying to cope with a new life and survive daily zombie threats.


Well with my love of zombie stories, I figured I'd give this one a try.  First book in a series of three, this one deals with basically one man's story.
He survives a vicious viral attack that turns all humans into zombies once they die or are bitten.  He doesn't know what happened to his family as the virus basically breaks out and takes over in a single day or two.  He wanders the streets looking for food, and shelter, killing zombies as he goes.
He finally finds a bunch of survivors by accident and they take him in.

They've set up a lot in a short amount of time and have rules and policies that he has to learn.
Everyone has to contribute to the group somehow and eventually volunteers go out into the dangerous surroundings for stuff like supplies.

If you want to read the book, I won't ruin it for you, but I discourage it.
Unlike a story like The Walking Dead, or Day by Day Armageddon this one is not a page turner and the story is not meaty enough to get lost in.  You don't ever really invest in the characters and for me, at least, there wasn't enough tension and drama.  In some scenes, it definitely feels as though the author is trying too hard to be gory just for gore's sake, or really stretching trying to bring in new ideas on zombies when you don't have to if you're story is good enough.

2 out of 5 for it being a less than mediocre attempt.

Below

Released: 2002
Sci-fi, Horror
Director: David Twohy
Starring: Bruce Greenwood, David Crow
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  On a WW II submarine far below the ocean something strange is going on with the crew.

During the second World War, the U.S.S. Tiger Shark is on a normal and routine rescue mission.
Deep below the surface, a few little strange things start to happen.  Someone sees someone that isn't there, people start to hear voices, but is it haunted, or just imagination?

I had literally never heard a peep about this movie and never knew it existed until I found it, quite by accident.  Turned out to be a really good thriller that makes you wonder what's going on until the very end.

I won't say more since the less you the better the movie is.

See it if you get a chance.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for being a pleasantly scary surprise.

The Lake House

Released: 2006
Romance, Sci-fi
Director:  Alejandro Agresti
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock
Running Time: 99 minutes of heaven
Rated: PG

The breakdown:  A magic mailbox allows two people in two different years to fall in love with each other.


I absolutely love this movie.
At a secluded lake house on the shores of the Lake Michigan, a woman moves in and finds mail in her mailbox for someone who previousily lived there. 
Her trying to right this, ends up sending letters back in time by two years to the man who lived there before she did through her mailbox.
So this man, and this woman both live in the same house, only years apart.
Don't ask about the magic mailbox or how it exists, it's never explained, but regardless of this plot hole, the movie still works.  Trust me, if you can over this detail, you will enjoy this movie.
As the couple writes back and forth, they discover the time difference, and they discover each other.  One's a doctor, the other an architect and I think it's wonderful how the story unfolds between them.
She has a on again/off again boyfriend that she's not really into, he's always single and wants to meet her, in fact he's willing to wait two years for them to meet up somehow.
I don't want to reveal too much about the story because I love the chemistry between these two and the more you know, the less surprises there are for you.

See it and you'll understand!
4 out of 5 for on screen chemistry, an interesting story, and a love story worthy of losing yourself in.

The 12 Most Overrated Movies I Have Ever Seen

Again, these are in no particular order.  Just some of the worst movies that have been completely overblown as being worthy of seeing, a great story, or some other malarkey that was totally untrue.

 
1.  Twilight series - Ok, so I've only seen the first one, but that's all I need to see to know this story sucks.  When the actors cannot act, that's a big problem for making me believe in the story.  When the movie is shot like an MTV video with weird camera angles and short, quick cut scenes, that's also a big problem for me.  Maybe if  I had A.D.D. it would seem like a better movie, but most importantly....when the 2 actors that are portraying a couple (and they really are/were a couple off screen) have the chemistry of my sneakers, or perhaps my 2 sneakers sitting on the floor after my workout, that's a BIG problem for me.  Make a vampire/human/werewolf love story?  But then make sure the actors have no talent and no sizzle with each other, yeah, that's a surefire way to make me hate your movie, besides the lack of substance in the story itself.  I've seen television commercials at 30 seconds have more substance and style.


2.  Citizen Kane - Rosebud.  Ah yes, we all watched it to find out what the dying man's last words meant, turns out it's nothing important.....much like the rest of this movie.  There's nothing earth-shatteringly important about it and it was kinda' boring and slow paced.  I know some of you might argue with me, but for me, not good enough.


3.  Lost in Translation - Oh man, I heard so much about how great this movie was....and it was not.  You can tell that a lonely older married man and this young lonely married woman like each other (against all odds) floating aimlessly in a foreign country, but the romance never goes anywhere, much like the movie.  It's all just a big build up to nothing at the end.


4.  Pirates of the Caribbean - I just don't get it.  I don't understand why these movies are so popular.  I watched the first one and I didn't like it, and then, they keep making sequels?  There's nothing special about the story, nothing interesting that makes me want to keep watching, and I don't care about the characters, so that leaves nothing.  I liked the ride at Disneyland, does that count?


5.  Shakespeare in Love - This movie won an Oscar???!!! How????!!! It sucked.  Again, no chemistry between lovers, no interesting story lines, no comic relief, and no talented actors pretending to act!  Come on, somebody wake up the academy before they strike again and pick another terrible movie to win.


6.  The Soloist - I heard about how good this movie was and that it's based on a true story, like that's supposed to make it better somehow.  Perhaps the real story was better, but the movie was trying too hard to be moving/profound and it just ended up being long and drawn out to the point where I was bored.


7.  The Hangover - Not funny.  Granted, Bradley Cooper was EXTREMELY hot in this movie, but that is not funny.  I smiled a couple times, but I thought the humor was either awkwardly strange, or cliche.  Just nothing new, or funny about it.  And then they make a sequel?!  Unreal!


8.  Saving Private Ryan - I don't get it.  I'm sure it was very realistic as far as the first World War goes, but the story wasn't compelling enough for me to care about the characters.


9.  Fried Green Tomatoes - This movie is about 2 lesbians who do not act on their instincts (thankfully, because it would be really gross to see these 2 actresses make out with anyone, men or women).  I don't have anything against lesbians, but I do have something against a crappy movie.  This movie has been so hyped up to me about how good it is and I simply must see it!  I did and I wasn't impressed.  In fact, I was mostly bored.


10.  The Hours - Ugh, another snooze fest.  I heard this movie was good, but it was a lesbian that told me this, so after I've seen the movie I can understand why.  All the "straight" women in this film are either closet homosexuals, or confused bisexuals.  Again, I don't have a problem with any one sexual orientation, but the characters were just underdeveloped or annoying.  Utter pointless characters, boring story, and just plain no good. This movie is a severe downer and a complete waste of time.


11.  Clerks - I don't get it.  This movie basically about nothing is supposed to be witty and funny, but I just wasn't entertained and I didn't feel connected to any of the characters.  Also, not funny.  It looked cheap and it was.  That was supposed to be charming somehow I guess?


12.  Natural Born Killers - um I hated this movie.  Two messed up kids grow up, get together, fall in love, start killing people and the media makes them into rock stars.  I get the "message" of the film about how irresponsible media is, influencing crime and all, but these shots during this movie were cheesy at times, the characters could be pretty awkward and the whole movie was just too long and too silly for me to take serious.  There was a better way to do this one.

The Box

Released: 2009
Sci-fi
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: James Marsden, Frank Langella, and unfortunately, Cameron Diaz
Running Time:115 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Based on the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button", this movie takes us on a frightening and thought-provoking journey of decisions and consequences.

Oh, how I love this movie!
Taking place back in the late 1970's, a married couple finds a wooden box on their doorstep one cold December morning.
A mysterious and disfigured man shows up during the day to explain that he will give the couple 24 hours to make a difficult decision.  They can push the button and immediately kill someone in the world, they don't know, and receive 1 million tax free dollars; or not.  Either way, they receive $100.00 from the mysterious man just for their time.  The man explains this to the wife alone as she is the only one home that day.  When her husband returns home she tells him what happened and they talk about it.  The man decides they shouldn't press it, and takes the box down into the basement so no one can accidentally hit the button.  He's some sort of scientist for NASA and is curious about the design of the cheap looking box.  He takes apart screws on the bottom and opens it up to reveal no machinery, and no electronics or anything inside the box.  It looks like a prop that does nothing.
The wife meanwhile, still thinks about their decision.  The morning that their time is up, they seem to be still debating it, and time is running out.

I won't tell you anymore because it's a great movie worth seeing, despite Cameron Diaz's performance.

4 out of 5 for being very intriguing to watch as the story unfolds and being completely unpredictable; you never know where the story will go until the very last shot.   SEE IT!

Collateral

Released: 2004
Crime
Director: Michael Mann
Starring:  Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A hit man hijacks a Los Angeles taxi and driver to drive him around to his various jobs for one night.

Let me preface by saying Tom Cruise is in it and that's a mark already against the film if you ask me.  That aside, the movie's quite unrealistic and hard to believe.
A hit man decides to hire a taxi for the night to take him around L.A. so he can kill multiple targets.  The driver is not told what's going on until it's unavoidable and an accident is made by the hit man.  After the driver learns of the true intent of his fare he wants out, but the hit man holds him at gun point and "hijacks" the taxi, demanding the driver stay with him and continue on their original plan.

I'm not sure why Tom Cruise's hair was made to be silver.....Could they not get Richard Gere for this role?  Was it to make him look older, more distinguished, less strange?
Cruise has never been a great actor no matter what his hair color is, so that didn't do anything but make Cruise look even stranger than he normally does.
I used to think Jamie Foxx was a good actor until I started to notice that he acted just like he did in The Soloist when his character in that did the same things that this other character did.  So maybe, he's not as good as I thought he was if he's a one trick pony, or has a very small range.

Overall, I would say this movie could be easily skipped in favor of a better action movie.
2 out of 5 stubs for Javier Bardem who was very good.

My Life Without Me

Released: 2003
Drama
Director: Isabel Coixet
Starring: Scott Speedman, Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo
Running Time: 106 minutes
Rated: R
 
The breakdown:  A woman learns of her terminal illness and instead of telling her loved ones, decides to make a bucket list and carry out some small goals.

This was a movie I had never heard of and to tell the truth there wasn't much good about it.
It was a little less than mediocre.
A young married mother goes to the hospital after passing out.  She finds out that she has cancerous tumors in both her ovaries and it's spread to her stomach and liver.  Had she been older, they could've operated, but with her youth, the disease spreads so fast there's nothing they can do.
She takes the news better than most might, but she decides it would only make her family sad and decides she doesn't want them to know.
She makes a list of things she always wanted to do but never has.  She wants to sleep with someone other than her only lover, her husband.  She wants another man to fall in love with her.  She wants to go on a small vacation with her husband, blah, blah, blah.
There's nothing really good for me to review with the exception of Mark Ruffalo's performance as the woman's boyfriend.  She doesn't tell him much, but he knows she's married.  His character is already emotionally damaged when he comes into the story, but he plays the vulnerability role well.
My problem with the main character is that she thinks it's ok to cheat on her husband since she's dying.  If she loves him, which she claims to, I'm not sure why she feels the need to have sex with someone else and have another man fall in love with her, just so that she can die on him too.  Some of her "goals" are incredibly selfish.  I just couldn't enjoy this one.

Skip this movie if you have any inkling of seeing it.
1 out of 5 for Ruffalo's role.