(500) Days of Summer

Released: 2009
Romance, Drama
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: An irreverrant romance story about a boy that falls in love with a girl that he works with; told in sections broken apart by days, though the days don't run in chronological order.

Tom falls in love with a girl named Summer at his office.  She doesn't believe that true love exists and says she's not really looking for anything serious.  Tom is not deterred by this, he is sure he wants to spend the rest of his life with this woman.  They end up starting a romance and the movie takes a look at how it develops, how it starts, and follows it through.  It's definitely focused on Tom's perspective of things as all characters are basically background to him.
I found it to be a very realistic, the most realistic, love story, I've ever seen portrayed on film, and it's very honest.  I could certainly relate to it and found it touching, funny, and insightful.

If you love a good story, you should see this one.
5 out of 5 for being the most accurate portrayal of a love story.  It's one of my favorites of all time.

There Will Be Blood

Released: 2007
Drama
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds
Running Time: 158 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A blossoming oil tycoon adopts a baby boy as his own and travels the country trying to buy land to build an empire at the turn of the twentieth century.  Based on a book by Upton Sinclair titled "Oil" written in 1927.

I had no desire to see this movie, but I ended up loving it.
It is a very intense drama and beautifully acted.  An absolutely flawless movie, I have nothing to complain about.
Daniel Plainview is a miner who is incredibly driven and will do just about anything he has to to get ahead.  He discovers oil and gets into the business of buying land and building oil rigs.  Along the way, he "adopts" a son and basically uses him as a tool to have people feel bad for him being a single father and they part with their land easier.  After he's been in the game a while, he finds a particularly valuable piece of land that is owned by a farming family.  He tries to buy their land, but one of the twin sons is smarter than the rest of the family and wants a lot more money that Mr. Plainview initially offers.  The son is a self-proclaimed faith healer and a very religious preacher.  He wants a sizable amount of money to build a big church for his followers.
There is an incredibly dynamic relationship between the preacher and the oil man that cannot be missed.
This is one of the few movies that I will ever say is perfect.

5 out of 5 for an amazing performance from Paul Dano, playing twins, and Daniel Day-Lewis being brilliant, as usual.  This movie is extremely superb.  You must see it.
By the way: as a piece of information that I find flabbergasting.  Paul Dano was originally only cast as one brother when the project began.  The other actor that was going to play Eli (a huge emotional and important role) dropped out and the script was re-written for the brothers to be identical twins.  Dano is quoted as saying he only had one week to prepare for his role as Eli; and if you've seen this movie, you can imagine how difficult that must've been, and how amazing Dano must be as an actor to be able to pull this off.

Alive

Released: 1993
Biography, Drama
Director: Frank Marshall
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: This is the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team that has some terrible choices to make as they try to survive after their plane crashes in the snowy Andes mountains.

Ok, so the truth:  a group of men, mostly teammates of a Uruguayan rugby team, are forced to do some terrible things to survive after their plane crashes in the Andes mountains.  They survived for a little over 2 months during bitter cold, no supplies, no communications, avalanches, and no food.  They did this through pure will, strength, a strong belief in God, innovation, and cannibalism.  Yes, you read that right, they had to make the unbelievably hard choice of eating their family and friends that had perished in the crash.
It's an amazing story of survival that fascinates me.

I watched a documentary of their plight just a week after I had seen this movie so I can easily see the differences between reality and the dramatization made for the film.  Mostly, I think the movie took some liberties to change what a few characters acted like during the ordeal, and actually tried to make it a bit lighter of a mood then what the real life situation was like.

If I see a movie like this, I want it to be as realistic as possible.  If you'd like to learn what the real story is like I recommend reading the books that the survivors have written, or watch the documentary that I did, also called "I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash".

The story itself is a 5 out of 5, but for the film making changes I don't think it should've touched, I can only give it a
3 out of 5 for not staying totally true to the actual events.

Still, you should either read this story from a survivor or watch the documentary, because the actual events are so incredible to learn about and wonder what you'd do in their place.

Young Frankenstein

Released: 1974
Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown:  Dr. Frankenstein's grandson is a college professor and doctor working at a college, trying to forget about his family's legacy when fate has other plans.  He inherits the castle and decides to do some experimenting of his own.

Dr. Frankenstein's grandson has always believed his grandfather to be a very twisted and sick man.  Although, when his grandfather dies and leaves him his castle, he finds his old ledgers about his experiments and the grandson begins to get curious that the old man wasn't so crazy after all.  After making friends with the lab assistant, Inga, Igor, and the housekeeper, he decides to dig deeper and try out some experiments of his own.
This is a comedy classic and I catch something different almost everytime I watch it.
See it!
5 out of 5 for laughs throughout the picture.

Chicken Run

Released: 2000
Comedy, Animated
Director: Peter Lord, and Nick Park
Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Phil Daniels
Running Time: 84 minutes
Rated: G

The breakdown:  A farm full of chickens wants to escape before they are made into pot pies.


So cute!  I loved this movie the first time I saw it in theaters.  Set in England, a chicken farm has a sinister secret in store for their little chickens on the family farm.  The wife of the farmer has just bought an assembly line pot pie machine and plans on killing her chickens and making a ton of money.  The chickens are smart, but need to find a way off the farm before they are all dead meat.  This one sounds like a serious plot, but the film is hilarious and cute enough for older and younger viewers alike.  One of my favorite animated films ever.

Watch it!
5 out of 5 for a cute, entertaining plot, and for amazing animation work that took years to complete.

The Last King of Scotland

Released: 2006
Drama
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Gillian Anderson
Running Time: 121 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Uganda president Idi Amin in the 1970's meets Nicholas Garrigan in the jungle and decides to make him his personal physician.  Idi Amin and the events in Uganda are real, but Nicholas Garrigan is not a real person.  It's half real, half fiction.

Dr. Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda at the beginning of the film to escape his father.  He's just graduated from school and is on a mission to help the local people of the countryside who would otherwise not seek medical help.  While out in the jungle one day he runs into the new president, Idi Amin.  Amin decides to take Garrigan as his personal doctor, but Nicholas has no idea what he's gotten himself into.
Idi Amin over the course of his rule murdered 300,000 of his own people.  He's intimidating, dangerous, and a power hungry thug.  Nicholas soon learns about his new friend in terrible ways and when he wants to leave, he is not allowed to simply walk out.

The biography of Amin is a terrifying thing to watch as he was a horrible human being and a mass murderer, killing innocent people all over the country.  The relationship between Dr. Garrigan and Amin is tense, and you're constantly hoping Garrigan doesn't do something that will get him killed.

It's a fantastic movie with great acting and intense drama.

Watch it.
5 out of 5 for a compelling story that's hard to look away from.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Released: 2010
Fantasy, Teen
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Logan Lerman, Kevin McKidd, and a whole bunch of other kid actors you haven't heard of
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: A teen boy finds out he is the descendant of a Greek god.

A boy who lives with his single mom finds out by accident that he is the descendant of a Greek god and has to go on an adventure to learn about his new life.  He's accompanied by two friends, and travels all over the country learning how to use his powers.

This is not the usual movie I watch, but there wasn't anything else on and I hadn't seen it yet, so I watched it out of boredom.  It was ok overall.  Probably not the blockbuster the studio was hoping it would be, but I suppose it's really great to kids.
To adults like me, it's mediocre....Not too bad, but not great either.  Some of the special effects were interesting to look at, but the story isn't strong enough to stand on its own.

I say skip it unless you really, really want to see it.
3 out of 5 for a good idea, but misguided execution.

The Road

Released: 2009
Drama, Sci-fi
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name comes to life in this riveting movie.  After something causes the end of the world (it's never discussed) a couple of lone survivors, a father and son, have to battle to stay alive every single day.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a father and son battle to survive what's left of planet Earth and the United States.  They've been in this world for quite a while and have to battle against hunger, bad weather, other people who are out to kill them and steal whatever they have, and anything else that may come up.  The biggest threat is starvation and then after that, groups of bad guys that get together and go hunting for people who cannot protect themselves.
The son who's about 10 has never had a soda and doesn't know what things like tv or radio and music are.
The father is extremely weary from trying to protect and provide for the both of them, but loves his son more than anything and would do everything to keep him alive.
I read the book as well, and was absolutely riveted by the plot.  I finished the book in a week and it was a very good story that was emotional and thought provoking.
The book is almost always better than the movie because they eventually have to leave something out of the book for the time constraints or have to add something else that wasn't in the book to appease a visual audience.
I recommend reading the book over the movie, but the movie wasn't a bad adaptation.

The story is very heavy though, so it's nothing like a feel good movie at any point, nor is there any comedic relief so be prepared for an emotional film.

4 out of 5 for being an elegant adaptation of the book and a rock solid dramatic story.

Jurassic Park

Released: 1993
Fantasy, Sci-fi
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum
Running Time: 127 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A wondrous new theme park is about to open that has real live dinosaurs.  Unfortunately, while some of the most respected dinosaur bone experts are there with the owners grandchildren, a terrible storm hits the secluded island and knocks out power.  This allows the extremely deadly predators out of their cages and the human beings have to find a way to stay alive.

I went on opening day to go see this film and waited in line for hours in the hot Arizona summer sun because I was that excited.  It didn't disappoint me.  The special effects were awesome, the story was entertaining, well thought out, funny at times, and scary at others, it was one of the best films I had seen to date.  It's still one of my favorites and recommend anyone see it who hasn't yet.

An eccentric, and very optimistic but foolish older man decides that after finding dino dna suspended and preserved in a piece of amber that they should grow live dinosaurs.  He builds a theme park/zoo for people to come visit called Jurassic Park on an isolated tropical island.  Before opening it to the public he invites his two young grandchildren, scientists, and dino experts to come check it out.  He keeps it a secret until the last minute what they are all doing there so the moment they see live dinosaurs it's pretty amazing.  While a big storm is getting ready to hit the island, there's also someone who wants to steal some dino dna samples and sell them for a big payday.  You must see the movie to see how it all goes, but it's a very good story.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for fantastic imagination and special effects, as well as a hot looking Jeff Goldblum delivering some very funny lines.

A final note about this movie.  There at least 2 other sequels to this movie and they are both terrible.  If you ever thought about seeing the other 2, DO NOT, I repeat, DON'T do it.  They are so unlike the first one.  There's none of the magic, wonder, or good plot that the first one has.  Maybe the books are better, but I haven't read any of them.

Frida

Released: 2002
Biography, Drama
Director: Julie Taymor
Starring: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ed Norton
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  The biography of the artist Frida Kahlo and follows her through her crippling injury and tumultous marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera.

I have to say I didn't watch this movie willingly.  I was actually a prisoner to watching it at someone else's house who loved this artist.

Frida Kahlo was an unattractive Latina artist who had a unibrow, so Salma Hayek had to really hide under a lot of ugly makeup to make her look like this woman.  Frida started out as a normal young girl who liked boys and expected to have a happy life.  One day on a bus as a young woman, she suffers a terrible injury after the bus crashes that changes her life forever.  She no longer lives a care free life, but has a lot of pain daily and has trouble walking and functioning from day to day.

She starts to channel this painful life into painting and finds a fellow painter that she is attracted to (even though, he's equally ugly and a womanizer.)  They marry, but soon after, he's cheating on her, and she knows it.  His career starts to take off and they travel all over the world.  Soon, Frida finds some people who are attractive to her, men and women, and starts having her own affairs.  Her husband is very jealous and angry when he finds out, but then she finds out, he's been sleeping with her sister.
They travel together, they argue, they paint, she gets pregnant, loses the baby and then keeps it in a jar to draw it in her artwork.
Most of the people in the film are severely emotionally messed up and the plot is essentially boring.  If you've never heard of either Rivera or Kahlo, you will most likely not enjoy learning about their lives.  If you're a big fan of either one, I suppose this film will appeal to your sense of knowledge.

1 out of 5 for Ed Norton playing a dashing Rockafeller.

The Incredibles

Released: 2004
Animated
Director: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter
Running Time: 115 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: A family of superheroes keeps their identities under wraps while trying to save the world and live a normal suburban life.

I usually really like Pixar films, but this one just doesn't do it for me.
I didn't really laugh at anything and my brother was right, out of all of the film, the only parts I did enjoy was the interior design in a few scenes that are based on real historically accurate furniture and architecture.
This superhero couple are the best of the best on a daily basis saving lives, but eventually they are forced to retire into normal lives after their middle age catches up to them.  They have three kids who were secretly born with super powers, but try to blend in with normal civilians.
The father is suddenly faced with the opportunity to jump back into action to save the world and brings his family along to help.

1 out of 5 for the normal supreme job the team at Pixar does for animation skills, but the storyline is bland and lacks any ooomph.

Prometheus

Released: 2012
Sci-Fi, Horror
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender
Running Time: 124 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A team of explorers journey to the far reaches of the universe to find out who or what created human beings.

I was very much looking forward to this movie and not remembering much of the Alien franchise is probably best to see this movie.  I can't remember seeing any of the others in their entirety, I know I've seen many bits and pieces, but I just never got around to sitting down to the whole movies.
Anyway, on Earth a couple of scientists find the same drawing on the cave walls of multiple civilizations that couldn't have possibly ever spoke to each other.  They see this image as an invitation to meet the beings that created human beings.
A few years later, the scientists and a group of 15 others are traveling in hyper sleep to get to this planet where they think the aliens are.  They get there, wake up and start exploring.  Within hours they find a sort of video recording of some disturbing deaths of the natives and find a dead body.  They take the head of a decapitated body back to the ship to study it and have to hurry along as a super bad and destructive storm is racing towards them and the ship.  Unfortunately, two crew members get lost on the way out and that's where the body count starts.

Overall, it was a good movie.  I think someone that's a big fan of the Alien franchise might be a bit disappointed, but if you go in there and just take it on its own, it's solid.
The special effects are top notch, the acting flawless, and the story is an entertaining one.

See it.  4 out of 5 for great make up, special effects, and acting.

Murder by Death

Released: 1976
Comedy
Director:  Robert Moore
Starring: Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers
Running Time: 94 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: Five famous detectives from novels come together at a big mansion over a weekend to solve a murder mystery that is promised to happen while they are there.

This movie is so funny.  I pick up on a new joke every time I watch it.  An eccentric millionaire invites five detectives to join him for a weekend at his secluded mansion for dinner and an overnight stay.  When they arrive they meet a blind butler and a deaf maid, but the millionaire is not yet there.  He shows up during dinner and promises that there will be a murder at midnight and that no one will be able to figure it out.  All the detectives love a challenge and are all ready for it, or so they think.  When they start trying to figure it all out, it just gets funnier and funnier.

This is a must see. 5 out of 5 for being hysterical and entertaining.

Happy Father's Day

Hello!
To all the readers who are fathers
Happy Father's Day!!

What's Up, Doc?

Released: 1972
Comedy
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn
Running Time: 94 minutes
Rated: G

The breakdown: The mix up of four identical looking plaid pieces of luggage lead to hilarious situations.

I never wanted to see this movie, but once I did, I loved it and laughed hard.  This is a screwball comedy which is refreshing to see and genuinely funny.  It doesn't sound like much, but once you find out what each owner of the same looking plaid overnight bag is trying to do, all of it gets mixed up and is really funny to see how they all try to straighten it out.

If you have never seen it, you should give it a shot if you like to laugh.
4 out of 5 for making you laugh out loud and enjoy yourself.

Adaptation

Released: 2002
Drama, Crime
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage, Chris Cooper
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  This is a strange story about a screenwriter who's trying to adapt a real life non-fiction novel into a movie and asks for help from his non-experienced twin brother.


This one's a bit tricky to talk about, but I'll try.  Charlie Kaufman has written many screenplays, but seems to be in a bit of a funk with his new project.  In real life there's an author named Susan Orlean who really wrote a book named "The Orchid Thief" which was about her real experience with a man named John Laroche, who's an exotic plant collector.  The movie takes this book and adds to the ending so that everything after the real ending of the book is a complete work of fiction.  Anyway, in the movie Charlie gets the job of adapting the book into a movie screenplay but he's got so many of his own personality quirks and low self esteem that it gets in the way of him working.  He asks his twin brother, who's just moved in and started writing stories himself to help him with this screenplay.
It was a good movie, but it's hard to talk about it if you haven't seen it.

I recommend you see it.
4 out of 5 for being a completely unique and interesting movie.

Lady in the Water

Released: 2006
Mystery
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: An apartment building super rescues a woman from the apartment pool, but soon finds out she's not what she appears to be, and has to help get her home.

This is not a typical Shyamalan story, but it's still good and one of my favorites from him.  There's this woman who this super finds and saves from drowning in the pool, but she's not from this world.  She's a character out of a bedtime story and needs help to get to her home world before creatures here keep her from returning safely and giving mankind a message.
This is a very unique and engaging story.  I thought it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for uniqueness with an interesting story to watch unfold.

A River Runs Through It

Released: 1992
Drama
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Brad Pitt, Tom Skeritt, Craig Sheffer
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: Boring and pointless!  Oh, do I really have to do this?  All right....
Two sons grow up in rural Montana, fly fishing, and doing not much of anything entertaining.

Ok, there's these two brothers that grow up under their Presbyterian minister father and he's pretty stern.  One brother is reserved and tries to do the right thing, the other one is very rebellious and gets into all sorts of trouble.  That's it.  If it was interesting, it would be a character study, but since it's based on someone's actual life, it's a bit boring for my taste and not worth watching.

Skip it, even if you heard it won an Oscar, it did, but they do get it wrong sometimes.
2 out of 5 for beautiful shots of the countryside.

The Shawshank Redemption

Released: 1994
Drama
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
Running Time: 142 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Two prisoners bond over a string of years and dream of escaping out into the real world.

This movie is based on Stephen King's novella called, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption."  What I find funny is that this story lacks any supernaturalness completely, but may be King's finest work ever.
The story is compelling, engaging, and unbelievable in the best way possible.  The acting is solid, the plot is rock solid and the director had a clear vision.  This movie is a must see and was nominated for no less than 7 Oscars for a reason.  I'm being super brief with the synopsis because I simply want you to discover the story for yourself.  It should appeal to any movie lover.

SEE IT!
5 out of 5 for an emotional powerful story.

Swingers

Released: 1996
Comedy
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Heather Graham
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A brokenhearted man cannot get over his past love even though his friends do all they can to make him see what a catch he is.

This is one of my personal all time favorites.  A man cannot get over his ex-girlfriend who dumped him months ago and will talk to anyone who will listen to him about it.  His friends do all they can to encourage him to date new girls, go out to parties, travel to Vegas to get away, and help him see, he is a great guy.  He doesn't believe them, but eventually, he finds someone new who he might like enough to want to get to know better at a swinging nightclub.  This movie is sweet, funny, and sad at times.  It's very easy to relate to to anyone who's ever suffered a difficult break up and has a hard time getting started dating again.

See it!
5 out of 5 for a uniquely funny and engaging movie that's told from the heart.

The Woman in Black

Released: 2012
Horror, Thriller
Director: James Watkins
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciaran Hinds
Running Time: A scary 95 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A lawyer travels to a small village where he finds a haunted home with a ghost that is truly evil.

Daniel Radcliffe plays Mr. Kibbs, who's a widower with one young son.  He's a lawyer without a lot of money and he's overdue in a lot of bills.  His firm sends him to a remote village to take care of an estate of a recently deceased eccentric woman.  No one in town wants him there and they don't have any trouble showing it.  He's really confused, but determined to see the house the villagers have told him to stay away from.  He needs to search it for documents or else he'll lose his job for sure.
Once arriving in a desolate marshland, he sees the only road leading to town gets covered over in water when the tide rolls in.
While spending the day there looking for papers, he starts to hear strange noises coming from the second level.  He cautiously goes to check it out, but some of the rooms are locked and he doesn't have the keys on him for the doors.  While he's looking out the windows to the family cemetery he sees a woman in black standing near the gravestones.  He runs down to check it out as he thought he was alone, but by the time he gets there, there's no one there.  And it just gets creepier and scarier from there.

I liked this movie a lot and it will not disappoint you if you're in the mood to get the crap scared out of you.  I only have one complaint where I lost the suspension of disbelief for just a moment, but it could've been done a little better.  It's a very small thing, as the rest of the film was really well done.
Go see it in a theater if you can, but it's also on pay-per-view right now.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for a really compelling story, eerie settings, great acting, and some very effective little details that are missing from so many scary movies these days.

Hanging Up

Released: 2000
Drama?
Director: Diane Keaton
Starring: Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow
Running Time: 94 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Three sisters try to bond after their father gets put into the hospital.

I tried to watch this movie, I really did.  I knew that the actresses in it I didn't like, and I knew the storyline sounded boring.  I knew it got terrible reviews and usually, I can stick with a movie, no matter how bad to later make fun of it.  But this one was so bad, I fast forwarded through 7/8th's of it and still felt like I wasted too much time.
Basically, these three sisters live far enough apart where they are constantly on the phone with each other and bickering.  They seem to not like each other and only start to rebond after their dad gets put into the hospital, where it seems, he will die soon.
They reconnect, he dies, the end.
Bland, bland, and annoying.  I got through the first 10 minutes where it showed just people talking on the phone, and they lost my interest.  I didn't care about anything in the film.  Skip this absolutely.
0 out of 5 for utter boringness.

Help egg laying hens now!

Let Our Hens Open Their Wings!
	Urge Congress to Pass the Humane Egg Bill
	Dear Animal Advocates, The vast majority of egg-producing hens in our country live in miserable and cruel conditions. Thankfully, important legislation has been introduced in Congress to help improve these animals’ lives. The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012 (S. 3239/H.R. 3798) represents a joint effort between the egg industry and animal protection groups to designate realistic and enforceable humane living standards for egg-laying hens. This bill would require the creation of minimum humane standards with respect to cage size, air quality, feed and water, and euthanasia. The ASPCA supports this unique collaboration as a significant step forward for animal welfare. Most of the nation’s approximately 280 million laying hens are kept in cages that allow each bird a mere 67 square inches of space. Even worse, tens of millions of hens are given just 48 square inches each—at roughly half the size of a sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper, this is not enough room for a bird to spread her wings. Numerous states, businesses, animal welfare advocates, consumer groups, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and even the United Egg Producers, a cooperative that represents the owners of 88% of the nation’s egg-laying hens, agree that it is time to improve basic conditions for these animals.
	What You Can Do Our nation’s egg-laying hens desperately need your support. Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center online right now to email your U.S. senators and representative in Washington, D.C., and urge them to cosponsor the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments. Thank you, advocates, for taking the time to help America's egg-laying hens. Take Action Now »

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Got this in my email this morning and already sent a letter to my congress person urging them to pass this bill that will help egg laying hens have bigger cages so that they can at least open their wings.
You should help out as well by filling in some information about yourself and sending a letter to your local congress member.  Please help!

Second Hand Lions

Released: 2003
Drama, Comedy
Director: Tim McCaniles
Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Michael Caine, Robert Duvall
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: A young man gets dropped off with his two great uncles he's never met because his mother wants to go to "school".

This was a sweet and touching story about a terrible mother, two older men who don't know anything about children, and a young man who's trying to learn who to trust.
The young man's mother says she's going to court recording school and must leave him with his two great uncles that he's never met.  They haven't called or given the uncles any notice, but they do end up taking him in at his mother's request.  It turns out they have a ton of money and the mother wants her son to cozy up to them so that eventually her and her son will get the millions.
As the boy learns about his uncles he becomes trusting of them and their wild stories and is learning to be truly happy living out in the country, farming, and taking care of wild animals like an old lioness.
Trouble comes along when his mother returns and she's brought a new boyfriend along.

I won't ruin a good movie for you, you should it for yourself.

4 out of 5 for being a cute movie and very touching.

The King's Speech

Released: 2010
Biography, Drama
Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: The true story of King George VI of Britain and his speech therapist/friend who teaches him how to overcome his stutter for public broadcasts.

This was a very good and entertaining movie.  I understand why it won 4 Academy Awards including best picture and best lead actor.
Before King George VI took the throne, he was a shy man who wanted to keep to himself in the background of his father, King George V.  He had an older brother, played by Guy Pearce, who would first be in line after their father died.  Eventually, King George V does die and the older Duke becomes King Edward VII, but he is a bit irresponsible and cannot keep the crown.  He's fallen in love with an American commoner who's twice divorced and as the King and head of the Church, you cannot hold the position while married to a divorced person, so he steps down to marry her.  Unfortunately for King George VI, who's name is Albert, this means he must become King.  He's terrified of the position along with having to give speeches all the time and he stutters so badly.  After seeking out multiple doctors and speech therapists, he has all but given up hope.  His wife finds someone whose methods are irreverent and unconventional for his time, but he is very good and someone they haven't tried yet.  Soon, his methods are working and Albert, called Bertie, is starting to speak easier.  The speech therapist and the King become good friends and King George becomes a good public speaker.

Rated R for a small string of obscenities due to the unconventional treatment the speech therapist gives, this movie should not be missed even with this rating.  The movie overall, is a very good piece of film for young and old alike.

I give it 4 and 1/2 stars for being interesting, great acting, entertaining, and a solid piece of work.  See it.

The Truth about Cats and Dogs

Released: 1996
Comedy, Romance
Director: Michael Lehmann
Starring:
Running Time: Uma Thurman, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Chaplin
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A radio veterinarian talk show host sends her beautiful blonde friend on a date in her place after thinking no one would ever like the real woman behind the voice on the radio.

I had heard a few little things about this movie and when it came up on cable I finally decided to see it. It ended up being pretty cute.
Garofalo plays a woman with low self-esteem who is a vet and hosts a pet talk show on the radio.  After one of her callers asks her out on a date she decides he probably won't like the way she looks.  She meets a neighbor in her apartment complex that is tall, thin, and beautiful and they become fast friends.  Garofalo decides it would be best to set up her friend with this guy instead of herself, thinking it will lead to nowhere.  He ends up being attracted to her, but she wants Garofalo to tell the truth to this guy and sees they do indeed have a connection.  The blonde gives the guy Garofalo's actual number and asks him to call her, but he thinks it's the blonde he's talking to.  Garofalo ends up having an all night conversation over the phone with this guy, but she's upset he's attracted to her blonde friend.  Both the blonde and Garofalo are attracted to him and meanwhile things are getting more and more confusing and complicated for all three of them.
It was well acted, cute, funny, and entertaining.  If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

I give it 3 and a 1/2 for being a surprisingly good story.

The Hours

Released: 2002
Drama
Director: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore
Running Time: an agonizing 114 pointless and confused minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  3 pointless stories about sexually confused women who somehow have to deal with suicides in their lives.

Where do I start?  Perhaps NOMINATED FOR 9 OSCARS!!!!!??????  WHAT?????!!!!!
NO WAY!!!!!
No way does this piece of pointless film deserve that many nominations.  Ok, makeup would've been good for a nom, but it didn't get it.  I mean, Nicole Kidman is very different looking with her fake nose and all, but nothing else about this film is any good.

It runs three different stories that have the similarity of suicide, so it's quite the downer and slow moving to boot.
Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf who's depressed and what seems to be mentally unstable, although she could've just been bi-polar/manic depressive.  Her (husband, or brother?) husband, I think, moves her out to the country away from London to get better.
Meryl Streep is a lesbian, living with her life partner of 10 years and had a child through a sperm donor so she never met the father.  She's lesbian, but in love with an AIDS stricken poet, who's a man, whom she once had a short love affair with decades ago, and he's gay too.  Streep is a bit empty, vain, and pointless, pretty boring to watch in this role since her character is just surface level stuff.
Julianne Moore plays a pregnant housewife who's married, apparently happily, until she kisses one of her female friends on her husband's birthday.  Her character is awkwardly shy and slow speaking.  Hard to watch if you ask me.
I can't imagine anyone enjoying this film, unless, you are suicidal perhaps....

0 out of 5 - nothing entertaining about this one.

3000 Miles to Graceland

Released: 2001
Comedy, Crime
Director: Demian Lichtenstein
Starring: Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox
Running Time: 125 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A bunch of ex-cons get together and decide to rob a Las Vegas casino dressed as Elvis impersonators.

This movie was just ok for me. 
It's fun to see the guys act like Elvis and all, but the cinematography is a bit stretched out and strange.  The movie certainly didn't need to be as long as it was, but with all the slow motion shots and huge shoot-outs it was bound to run long.
Kurt Russell is the guy you're obviously supposed to like and root for in this one.  He meets up with Courteney Cox at a middle of nowhere hotel and sleeps with her.  Soon, his buddies show up all dressed as Elvis and they go down to the Rivera to rob it. They do, but someone in the group dies and there's an argument about how the remaining money should be divided up.  Ends up that they all try to deceive each other out of all the money for themselves and shooting sprees and crime ensue.
If you want to see it I won't ruin it for you.  It was that ok enough for me.

I give it a 2 out of 5 for Kurt Russell, an interesting storyline, but length and silly shooting styles mess it up too much to be a good film.

The Weight of the Nation on HBO

I just finished watching a four part series on HBO titled "The Weight of the Nation" and although incredibly informative and educational, it was so depressing.
68.8% of Americans are either overweight or obese and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
There's a ton of facts I can share with you about what I learned during this show, but it's very sad and completely unsettling.

Most likely, the kids that were born starting in 2000 will have a shorter life span than their parents due to the poor nutrition they suffer and lack of exercise.  Not just lack of exercise, but lack of motion - just moving around during the day.

Most people get a bulk of their unnecessary calories from soda.  Of course, we all know, soda has no nutritional benefits at all and they supply with you with a great source of empty calories.
Fruit juice is no better for you than soda.  There is just as much sugar in juice as in soda.
There's an easy way to tell how many teaspoons of sugar are in your drink, just multiply the grams of sugar listed by the serving size and divide by the number 4 and that's how you know.
EXAMPLE - a 20 oz. bottle of Coke has 65 grams of sugar and the serving size is listed as one bottle.  So, 65x1=65  then 65/4 = 16 and 1/4 teaspoons.  Just so you know, the American Heart Association recommends that women have no more than 7 teaspoons of added sugar a day, and for men, 9 teaspoons.

They showed a normal older woman's heart that died of non cardiac reasons who was at a healthy weight and the heart looked fist sized and pinkish.  She, in fact, had had a bypass surgery, which they pointed out, but that was under control and a heart attack was not the cause of her death.  Then they showed the heart of a man who was 500 pounds at the time of death and the heart had at least doubled if not tripled in size and had a massive layer of fat on the surface.  The heart is a muscle and when you weigh more, it has to pump harder, and gets bigger over time.  That man died of a heart attack.

There were a lot of things I didn't realize were going on in the country where it seems, the government is either working against getting its citizens healthy or special interest groups are bribing or lobbying for things to stay the same.
For instance, I had no idea that most schools dropped Physical Education a long time ago.  There's only a small fraction of today's schools where P.E. is mandatory.  This was the way it was when I was in high school.  I remember hating everyday of it, but it was mandatory, and it helped keep me moving.
Also, there's no one really watching over the food industry that controls things like aiming products towards children.  Advertisers can basically get away with just about anything for ads aimed directly to our children.  Some non-government groups tried to get the government involved with making companies like Kellogg, and General Mills accountable for the amounts of salts and sugars they put into kids cereals, but special interest groups, and the companies pushed too hard back and the non-government entity got nowhere fast.  The whole thing was dropped, so still, no one is governing how much junk is going into your kids food.  It's frustrating and just greed from big time corporations that want to get away with what they've been doing for decades.

If you missed the series and have HBO - Go you can still watch it:
http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/

If you'd like to learn more, visit the website above.  It includes facts like these listed below.

In the 25 years between 1987 and 2010, the number of American's diagnosed with diabetes almost tripled to 20.9 million.
The obese workforce costs American business an estimated $73.1 billion per year.40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home40% of every dollar spent on food is spent on food prepared outside the home

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest source of sugar in the diets of children and adolescents.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity every week for adults.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend 60 minutes of physical activity every day for children.

Children consume more than 7.5 hours of media a day, 7 days a week.

About 46% of adults' added sugar intake comes from sugary drinks.

According to Nielsen data, comparing 2008 to 2010, preschool children were exposed to 50% more TV ads for energy drinks in 2010.

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A nation of overweight people are just costing all of us money by missing days of work, it costs more to try to get them healthy then if they were just maintaining health, and it's a national embarrassment.  Look at the countries in this world where people are gravely underweight and they don't have enough food to feed their nation.  Children and adults dying of starvation in some African countries, while we sit here and almost boast sometimes about how fat this nation has become and make jokes about being lazy.
It starts with each individual.  Watch what you eat, eat sensibly and healthy, and keep moving everyday with enough exercise to make you sweat.

Sweet Dreams

Released: 1985
Biography, Drama
Director: Karel Reisz
Starring: Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Ann Wedgeworth
Running Time: 115 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  The true story of Patsy Cline's rise to stardom, her difficult life, and her untimely tragic death.

I love me some Patsy Cline.  She had such a wonderful talent and I wish she hadn't died so young and when her career was only 5 and half years old.  I just got around to seeing this movie, knowing that a lot of family member's of Patsy's do not agree with a lot of it.
The movie follows Patsy from the time when she was married to a much older man that she just doesn't feel much for.  She complains to her mother that they don't fight, or talk, or much of anything.  She's not sure how to get out of the marriage.  While singing at a school dance (this was way before her career took off) she meets her future husband, Charlie Dick.  At first, she blows him off, but he follows her around to her performances and she ends up leaving her current husband for him.  They quickly court and get married and before long, he's drafted.  He is forced to move away while she moves back in with her mother to save money and starts touring small gigs.  When her career just barely starts, she finds out she's pregnant and kind of puts her career on hold, Charlie is still in the Army in another state after all.  After the baby's born, she picks it up again, and soars to new heights, as she gets more and more well known and respected.
Unfortunately, the film depicts her and Charlie's marriage as abusive where he beats her so badly, she calls the police.  Asked in an interview about the movie, the real Charlie Dick says it's a good story if you like fiction.  Of course, someone would easily be able to see the police reports and see documentation of an arrest, so I think the abusive was true.  Charlie Dick lives up to his name and remarried only 2 years after Patsy's death and continues to live off of her fortune today, so I do think he beat her and cheated on her as well, as depicted in the film.
It's strange that Patsy Cline was so strong professionally constantly standing up for herself and not taking any crap from any man, but at home, she stayed with an abusive, cheating husband until her death and couldn't break free of him.  She was quoted as saying that Charlie was the love of her life.
Anyway, near her death she traveled by personal plane to a benefit for a disc jockey that had passed away in an accident and she gave her last live performance.  She got standing ovations and they had to add additional performances they sold out so fast.  She was at the pinnacle of her career.  Her manager at the time, was flying them back home in a very small four passenger plane.  They couldn't leave right away because the airport had been fogged in so they had to stay overnight.  Patsy called her mother before they left and that was the last anyone ever heard of her.  They left that night around 6:07 and her wristwatch found at the site of the plane crash was stuck at 6:20.  The plane had encountered bad weather and they crashed.  Now in the movie they show them crashing into a mountain, but I think this was not true.  From the research I did, it sounds like they just crashed into the ground, nose first.  Everyone was killed instantly, and the pilot had not been instrument trained which would be a great disadvantage flying in poor weather conditions.  Meaning, he relied purely on sight for navigation which proved to be fatal in this case. 
So we lost a true legend in 1963 at the young age of 30.
No one will ever sound as good as her again, and I cherish every song I can listen to from her.
So, the movie is good.  I'm pretty sure not all of it is true.  There's probably a lot that's been dramatized to make a bigger impact, but I do think a lot of it is what happened.

Jessica Lange was nominated for her performance for an Oscar, but she did not win.  She did a very good job and the movie overall is very well done.
See it, even if you don't like Patsy Cline, you will be a fan by the end of the movie.
I give it 4 and 1/2 out of 5 for strong performances, a clear vision, and fantastic music from original recordings of Patsy Cline.

X-Men: First Class

Released: 2011
Sci-fi, Drama
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A prequel to the other X-Men movies, this shows the origins of Professor X, Magneto, and others as they meet and work together to save the world.

I wasn't sure how this movie was going to go as I was pretty devoted to the first cast, but these actors really did a great job.  I'm almost liking the origin stories more than the original movies now.
This shows how Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr started out with their powers, how they meet, and become friends.  It also shows the origins of Beast, Mystique, and Frost from the older movies.  It's great to see Professor X and Magneto as friends and working together.  But unfortunately as they are working together to save the world, a rift develops between them and they fall on different sides of an argument about whether to fight for humans or against them.  I always liked Professor X but this movie made me understand Magneto's motivations as well, and he is not the bad guy I thought he was.  He's definitely a gray character, not black and white anymore. 
This has plenty of action, drama, and entertainment so if you're on the fence about seeing it, don't be.
Plus, I fell in love with James McAvoy all over again after not seeing him in any movies for a few years.

See it!  4 and 1/2 out of 5 for a great movie with an entertaining cast and engaging story.