My book's progress

I see it's been a long time since I updated the status of my book here.
I need to let you know, it's over 650 pages now and 17 chapters
I still have only a working title for it, The Dark Horse, but
I've got 10 people reading it and reviewing it and I'm working on it
every damn day.
It's still fun and exciting.

I'll try to do more updates if nothing else to help copyright this work and
distinguish it as my own original ideas and words.

Thanks to anyone still reading this.  It's not a dead blog yet.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith

Released: 2005
Comedy
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A long time married couple that's getting bored with their marriage realizes that they are both assassins who need to kill each other according to their bosses.

This movie first off isn't funny, second it's not a romance either, so to call it a rom com or even a comedy is misleading.  It's ridiculous most of the time and average the rest.

A man and woman fall in love within weeks and get married.  They've both lied to each other about what they really do for a living and on the outside, 6 years later, they look a bit bored with each other.
After both their bosses tell them to kill the same target, they end up realizing who their spouse really is.
They try killing each other and then have sex.  Their marriage is renewed, blah, blah, blah.  A whole bunch more stuff that is totally unrealistic happens, happily ever after.

1 out of 5 for some nice sets and cute outfits.

The Distinguished Gentleman

Released: 1992
Comedy
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Lane Smith, Sheryl Lee Ralph
Running Time: 112 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A con man decides to go for the biggest con of all and become a US senator.

I watched this movie by accident, and even though it got some really poor reviews, I thought it was funny enough to be good.

After a well known and well loved congressman dies suddenly during his campaign for re-election, Eddie Murphy realizes an opportunity.  They both have the same name and he wants to ride the dead senator's popularity and hope the voting public doesn't realize the switch.
It works and he's elected.  He moves from Florida to D.C. and starts learning what happens in congress and how wrong and crooked everyone really is.  Even though he originally wanted to be as crooked as the rest he sees some opportunities to help people who really need it and he has a change of heart from a con man to someone who's trying to make a difference.

It was funny and cute enough to probably be counted as Murphy's last good movie.

2 and 1/2 out of 5 for being entertaining and fun.

Prince of Darkness

Released: 1987
Horror
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Inside an old abandoned church lives pure evil in green liquid form.

An old priest dies with a box containing a key to an old empty church.  A new priest investigates and finds in the basement of this abandoned church a vat of swirling green liquid which he thinks might be the devil.  He hires a bunch of physics students and their teacher to investigate what they can find out without opening the vat.  Through research they find ancient texts saying the liquid is Satan himself and if released he will try to bring his father, an Anti-God into our plane, presumably ruining the world.  Problem is, as they discover more info, liquid starts to escape without anyone noticing and people start acting very strange.

I thought this was a really interesting idea for a movie.  It's original, well paced, and interesting to watch.
With that said, it looks pretty dated and some of the effects look pretty goofy.
Some of the scenes came off kinda' silly, but I'll forgive that since I enjoyed the story.

If you like horror movies, I'd recommend it with the caveat that some of it comes off a bit silly or goofy.
3 out of 5 for being a great idea, if not a great execution.

Melancholia

Released: 2011
Drama? Sci-fi?
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgard
Running Time: an agonizingly slow 136 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  I don't really know how to summarize this one.

This movie is a ripped off idea, style-wise from Kubrick's 2001.  The opening sequences are all slow motion and has a backdrop of classical music while strange impossible images are shown involving space and planet's colliding.

The first half of the movie, complete with black and white title card using one word, just like 2001, is about a wedding of Kirsten Dunst and some other actor I've never seen.  They are two hours late to their own reception apparently trying to help the limo driver navigate the long driveway.  Dunst is ill with either depression or bi-polar disease because she's terribly unhappy and stops in the middle of the celebration to take a bath upstairs in her sister's house.  Oh, she also sleeps with some random guy out on her sister's golf course instead of her new husband, who she left waiting for her in a bedroom upstairs.  I should mention her sister and brother-in-law have a huge mansion and their own golf course and paid for the wedding.
Anyway, the husband's tired of waiting for her to come up to have sex with him so he leaves her, as in, I want to divorce you.  So then she's alone.
Second half of the movie, they finally start talking about the new planet that supposed to either pass by Earth or collide with it.  The sister who isn't Dunst, has a child and seems to have some sort of anxiety problem as well.  Slowly, the non-Dunst sister gets more and more concerned that the other planet is going to collide with Earth.

This movie was a HUGE waste of time.  It's not stylish in a creative unique way, it's a direct rip off of Stanley Kubrick's style for his own sci-fi movie from the 1960's.  There's also not a lot of dialogue as was the case with 2001, but this time it doesn't work.  It simply is annoying and makes the movie seem even longer than 2 and 1/2 hours.  It was painfully slow, agonizing to watch, and I don't know how such a useless movie got such good reviews on Rottentomatoes.com.

I hated it.

0 out of 5 for annoying the hell out of me and having nothing redeeming about this movie to say.

Never Been Kissed

Released: 1999
Comedy
Director: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A new reporter gets her first assignment as an undercover teenage girl in high school.

A copy editor wants to be a journalist.  The Chicago Sun Time's owner lets her leap frog over her bosses wishes and allows her her first story.  Go undercover as a high schooler and learn what kids are doing these days.
Problem is she was a total loser back in high school and it seems she's doomed to repeat the same path, until her brother saves the day and her reputation.  She falls for a hot teacher, but is conflicted when the paper's owner tells her to make a story out of him or else she'll lose her job and get her boss fired as well.

This was a predictable, uninspired movie with a terrible performance from Barrymore.  She was a producer and that's always a bad sign that it wouldn't get made without her money behind it.

Skip it.
1 out of 5 for Michael Vartan.

Dune

Released: 1984
Sci-fi
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Sting
Running Time: 137 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A Duke's son is the chosen one and leads his new army on a strange desert planets filled with sand dunes and giant worms.

This movie was so weird and I don't know who to blame.  Could be David Lynch since he really likes to do weird concepts, could be the author of the book since I've never read it.  Could be that 2 and 1/2 hours isn't enough time to compress this really long novel into anything that makes sense.
With that said, it's hard to describe.  Easy to say though that the special effects are certainly dated and some of the scenes are kinda' goofy.

The universe is under the power of this drug called spice that allows people to fold time, live longer, and expand their minds into traveling through space without machines.  The Duke's son wasn't supposed to ever live, but his mother knew his father wanted a son, even though she was only allowed to have daughters. Anyway, the son ends up being the chosen one and starts a war to control the universe.

I don't know what to think of this one.  I guess...
2 out of 5 for some interesting ideas and maybe in the hands of a less bizarre director, could have been better.

Before Sunrise

Released: 1995
Romance
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Running Time: 105 long boring minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  Two young people spend a day and night in Vienna talking after meeting on a train.

So SO BORING.
I saw this got 100% on rottentomatoes.com and I had accidentally seen the sequel to this movie first, Before Sunset where they meet up again, and I didn't really like that one either.  I thought maybe I would like the second one more if I had seen the 1st one but it looks like that's not the case.
These two strangers meet on a train on the way to their separate locations when they strike up a conversation and hit it off.  When the guy is supposed to get off he asks the woman to come with him and she agrees.  They end up walking around Vienna all afternoon and night until they stop and have sex in the grass.  I guess they are supposed to have some connection, but I don't see it.
I was bored within the first 20 minutes of the film and I saw no instant connection that the actors should have had for this movie to work.  I don't know what the critics were watching, but it couldn't have been this movie.  It's not a romance, it's not a drama, it's not a character study.  It's just a bad idea.

0 out of 5 for giving me nothing but a wasted block of time.

Ali

Released: 2001
Biography
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight
Running Time: 157 long boring minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  The story of Muhammad Ali as he started out to his time in the ring later on.

It's obvious that a lot of time and money went into this biopic that travels with Ali from 1964-1974.  As he rises to the world Champion, marries and divorces multiple wives, as he's drafted for the Vietnam war and refuses to go, where strictly for political reasons they strip him of his belt and there's a lot talent in the film as well.
With that said, it's boring.  Muhammad Ali's life story is not boring, but the presentation of it here, and the extremely slow pacing is what brings the picture down.
I was interested in seeing it at first, but after the first 40 minutes I realized I still had 2 hours to go and it just seemed to drag on and on.
Even if you like Muhammad Ali, I recommend you steer clear of this rambling, slow paced film.
Skip It!
2 out of 5 for some good acting from people in small roles.

Major Payne

Released: 1995
Comedy
Director: Nick Castle
Starring: Damon Wayans, Michael Ironside
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A Major is being discharged from the Marines and finds a new purpose at a kid's school.

So this is a goofy comedy with lots of silly bathroom humor and visual gags, but there was some of this that I did think was funny.
Major Payne loves to kill people, but the wars he's used to are drying up and the Marines discharge him from the Military.  Without anything else to do, he longs to kill something.
His C.O. finally contacts him that there is a place he's needed.
He shows up for work, only to find out, he's going to be training R.O.T.C. members in a kid's school.  The kids, for the most part, are horribly out of shape and seem to have no pride or interest in themselves or the military.  Major Payne shapes them up and makes them a cohesive family unit.

3 out of 5 for being funny where it's supposed to be.
Incidentally, I watched this movie the same day as Will Smith's Ali, and this movie was much better.

The American

Released: 2010
Drama
Director: Anton Corbijn
Starring: George Clooney, Violante Placido
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated: R



The breakdown: An American assassin hides out in Italy after his last assignment ended badly.  Based on the book by Martin Booth titled A Very Private Gentleman.

So I get to the end of this film and I really loved it.  I checked out the reviews and see that they are really lopsided with lots of critics and viewers complaining it was boring.
Well, it's not boring for the intelligent, patient viewer who is interested in a CHARACTER STUDY more than someone looking for an action flick where there's a big body count and no intelligent dialogue.

With me writing a book, it's easy for me to see how hard it is to write a good story.  This is a good story, it's gripping, and even though it's slow paced, it's engaging.

An assassin hides out in an Italian town after his last job went sideways.  Despite him trying to blend in, he's very lonely and seeks out a friendship with a local priest and a relationship with a prostitute who he develops feelings for.  I don't want to say too much so as to not ruin the story, but know this...This is not an action spy film like James Bond.  There's not a ton of eye candy and explosions and shoot outs.  This is a character study and a brilliant one at that.

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for a brilliant clean and simple film.

Dogma

Released: 1999
Comedy
Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
Running Time: 130 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A seemingly average woman is called upon by God to save humanity from two fallen angels who are trying to get back into Heaven.

I don't know how to feel about this movie.  I did chuckle a couple times, but it wasn't super funny.  It's definitely full of crass humor, sex and drug references, lots of violence, and some interesting ideas about religion and God.

The main plot is that this abortion clinic worker has lost her faith and is recovering from a divorce when she is approached by the voice of god, played by Alan Rickman, to help save humanity.  At first she doesn't believe she's the chosen one, but events that unfurl soon after change her mind.  She has to stop two fallen angels from getting back into Heaven and she needs to find two prophets to help her along the way.

Obviously this is a controversial movie since it has anything to do with religion (which is such a ridiculous taboo in this country) but anyway, I know anyone who wants to see it has to be open minded to fully ingest all of it.
I'd say see it unless you're a religious nut, and then I'd probably say skip because it'll probably make your head explode.
3 out of 5 for being full of interesting ideas about God, but I wish it had been a bit more mature and little less crass.

Twilight - the book

Released: 2008
Author: St Meyer
Pages: 544 agonizingly stupid pages
Teenage

The breakdown: The phenomena that is a teenage girl falls in love with an old vampire.

So, the real reason I read this (well, half of it was as far as I got) was to see what made it so popular and how good or bad the writing was.  I did not surprise myself.
Regardless of how many people tell me the book is so much better than the movies, it's not the truth.  This book is just as bad as the movie.
The first time author has her own agenda to keep girls away from having sex before they are married.  She warns of all the bad things that might happen to the female lead if she continues to hang around and/or make out with this vampire.
Later on in the series we find that even after you get married, sex is still dangerous creating a child that almost eats it's way out of the mother, plus abortion is not an option, no matter what the circumstance.
There's too many direct moral messages the author is trying to hit you over the head with, for this to still remain a novel.  She should've just written a non-fiction book on how to raise your teenage daughter.

Anyway, the plot, teenage girl moves from Phoenix to Washington state in a dreary little town named Forks that almost never sees warm temperatures or sunlight.  She's the new girl in a very small town.  She's hit on by several boys at once, but is interested in none of them.  She does like the vampire pretending to be a boy who just smelled something bad and who looks at her as though he wants to eat her, literally, for dinner.

They start a relationship that sets the town ablaze with gossip and makes the vampire a bit of an outcast within his own "family."

The characters are always angry or filled with sarcasm, but beyond that, you don't really get to know them on a deep level.  It's all surface and the author goes on and on about how perfect and gorgeous the boy vampire is.  It's quite annoying and distracting to the reader's enjoyment.

The characters are also not allowed to talk without a lot of different versions of she said, he said surrounding the dialogue, so that's what not to do for writing 101.

I got as far as about 260-something pages before I quit.  The part where he's standing in the sun in a sleeveless button down shirt?  Why would he be wearing this?  But anyway, and he's sparkling, was just too much ridiculous crap for me to continue on.

1 out of 5 for showing me how not to write a novel.

Here's the review from my amazon.com account:

I saw the movie first and hated it. My best friend tried to persuade me that the book was better. I resisted. I am now in the process of writing my own novel and wanted to try to understand why this story, despite it's utter lack of good story line or characters, was so immensely popular. I rented it from the library and could only make it halfway through the book before giving up in disgust.
The female lead is good at hating things, complaining, and being obsessed with a "boy" who's over a hundred years old pretending to be a teenager.
The male lead is good at inappropriate emotional reactions to simple things the whiny girl says, and being moody or strange.
There is no chemistry between them. There is weak writing followed by a boring story line. I gave up at the point where the vampire shows his sparkles to her in the forest wearing a button down sleeveless shirt.
What I learned from reading half of this rubbish is how not to write a love story, which in a way is valuable, but for the understanding why it's popular....I'm still at a loss.
This book and movie was utter crap with no worth or entertainment value.
I would've given it a zero but the lowest I could go was 1.

Hanna

Released: 2011
Action, Drama
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Eric Bana, Saoirse Ronan
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A teenage assassin trained by her father is being tracked down by the government for elimination.

I thought this might be a crappy movie, but watched it anyways.
It's definitely weird.  I mean, there's a lot of stuff that is kinda' strange visually and I think the filmmaker though they were being quirky or artsy, but it just came off as weird instead.
This 16 year old lives in the frozen wilderness with her father and one day pushes a button that releases the government hounds on her.  Yes, they do it on purpose knowing they are being hunted anyway.
She and her father agree to meet up somewhere in Germany and they separate.  She gets caught and he almost does.  She breaks loose and kills a lot of people all while trying to get back to her dad.
I suppose the base story was interesting, but some of the weird stuff really gets in the way of this being a better movie.

2 out of 5 for me.
I say, skip it.

Cold Mountain

Released: 2003
Drama, Romance
Director: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger
Running Time: 154 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  During the Civil War, a deserter tries desperately to get back to the love of his life.

This was based on the book of the same name by Charles Frazier, which I totally want to read now that I've seen the movie.  Where as in The Notebook, I had heard great things and it was a total flop, this one I had heard nothing about and it was a great success.
A young couple meets and like each other, but then the Civil War breaks out and they are torn apart without being able to say more than a few paragraphs to each other.
He hates the war and leaves, a deserter, who is hunted down by many people for rewards and such.
She meanwhile, stays on her fathers farm and tries to cope with not knowing whether he's alive or not or getting her letters or not.
He's been injured during battle and finds many obstacles to getting back to her, and even though the film's almost 3 hours long, it never feels long.
All the main cast, and the supporting cast are very well known and strong actors and I enjoyed this dramatic romance immensely.
SEE IT!

4 and 1/2 out of 5 for being damn near perfect.  Sure to go down as one of my favorite romantic films of all time.

Behind the Candelabra

Released: 2013 on HBO
Biography
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Michael Douglas
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: TV MA or R in other words

The breakdown:  This is the story based on the autobiographical novel of Liberace and his much younger lover, Scott Thorson.

So Liberace apparently seduced this young L.A. guy who worked with animals for stage and screen.  They start a love affair and the young lover moves in almost right away.  Liberace tells him he wants to adopt him so that if anything happens his young lover will be taken care of.  Soon, Liberace has eyes for a new younger lover and Scott Thorson is kicked out.
A downer of a movie, but there wasn't anything else to watch, which is why I sat through an anal sex scene between Damon and Douglas.

Um, I don't know how to rate this one.  I guess if you liked Liberace it's worth your time, if not, maybe not then.

If I had to put a number to it - 3 out of 5 for being well done, just not super great.

Dark Shadows

Released: 2012
Comedy, fantasy
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: This is a spin on the classic old television show of the same name.

So I've never really like Tim Burton, so, in the end, I'm not surprised I didn't like this movie.

Depp plays Barnabas Collins who was cursed back in the late 1700's and became a vampire.  His scorned love interest, who's a powerful witch, created a trap for him in which he got buried (alive kinda) for 200 years.  Meanwhile, she took over the town that he lived in and was fine until Depp got released from his trap by accident.
He goes back to his home where he finds new relatives of his living there and they work together to try and get his town back from the witch.
Now the first half of the film was doing good, but the last half ruined everything that started off right.  The ending was really silly and a bit of a rip off of another movie, which, I can't name or else you'll know how this movie ends.
Anyway, it ended up being just a little below average from me, even though I chuckled a couple times.

2 out of 5 for some laughs.

The Amazing Spider-man

Released: 2012
Action, Adventure
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Martin Sheen, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone
Running Time: 136 long minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A totally unnecessary reboot on the Spiderman franchise.

I say unnecessary because this movie was poorly done.
Here's the plot:
Peter Parker who is a photographer but doesn't have anything to do with the paper, still loses his parents mysteriously and wonders what really happened to them.
He's left with Uncle Ben and Aunt May of course, but he takes up an interest in science after he's bitten by a spider.
There's no Mary Jane, instead we have some science major named Gwen.  She's super smart and an intern at Oscorp.
Uncle Ben still gets killed by a robbery gone wrong after Peter lets him (the robber) go, leading him to an interest in chasing down bad guys.

So they've totally messed up the iconic story, and to boot they got a lame awkward actor to play Spiderman.  He cannot do the role justice and a lot of scenes make him look to be a kid dressing up like Spiderman for Halloween.

The romance is terribly boring and lacks any spark, even though those two are dating in real life.

The special effects take the main stage and storyline and character development are on the back burner in this one.  Plus, the soundtrack is painfully bad and stands out so that it takes away from the movie instead of adding to it.
The whole project reeks of bad script writing and becomes a melodrama for superhero stories.

Skip it!
2 out of 5 for Emma Stone.

Sideways

Released: 2004
Comedy, Drama
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Two friends go on a trip to the California wine country for a week before one of the men gets married the following Saturday.  Based on a novel by the same name.

So this is a character study movie.  One man is an aspiring writer who is an English teacher Monday-Friday. He's responsible, a little up-tight, emotional, and caring.
The other is an actor who is immature and irresponsible and just wants to get laid one more time, or two, before he gets married at the end of the week.
The two disembark on an adventure up north to the wine country of California.  You can certainly feel the dread coming off both of these characters.
They talk about their lives and relationships and somehow at the end of the week, they are still friends, even though the irresponsible one has repeatedly messed up and left his friend in the dust for a woman who he thinks he's in love with.

I don't know, this was a solid movie, but it just didn't do it for me.  Ended up being just okay for me.
3 out of 5 for solid acting and script, but something about it just wasn't spectacular for me.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Released: 2011
Romance, Comedy
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A scientist and a business consultant work together with a middle-eastern sheik to create a stream where fly fishermen can come to catch salmon in Yemen.

This was based on a book by the same name.  I'm not sure if the book is any better, but this movie was kind of boring for me.  The scientist loves fly fishing and he works for a fishing magazine.  The consultant works for some firm where I assume she makes things possible or finds a way to do impossible things.  He's married and unhappy, she's in a new relationship with a guy who after 3 weeks of them dating gets sent off to  war and asks her to wait for him.
The scientist and the consultant meet up to see how this plan is going to work and then fly to Yemen to do on site research with the sheik.  Of course they fall in love, even though, it seems the romance is kind of the subplot to this "Romantic" movie.  It's more about the fish I think.

Kinda boring, but well done.
2 out of 5 for moving slow sometimes and just being ok.
Skip it, even if you like romances.

School of Rock

Released: 2003
Comedy
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Jack Black, Adam Pascal, Mike White
Running Time: 108 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A loser without a job who just got kicked out of his own rock band, needs a way to make quick money to pay his rent owed to his friend.

So Black lives with his friend, who has a bitchy new girlfriend demanding Black move out or pay his rent which is way overdue.  Black gets voted out of his own band, and can't stand the idea of getting a real job, so he's lost.  One day when he's the only one at home, he takes a call meant for his roommate who's a substitute teacher.  He decides to pretend to be his friend so he can work for a few weeks at an elite prep school and ends up turning the class room into a rock band so they can compete at a battle of the bands competition where the grand prize is $20,000.

I think I chuckled once, but otherwise I didn't much care for this.  I have to say Jack Black was not as annoying as he usually is so that was a plus, but the plot was just too thin for me to care and all the characters were just surface of course.  This was probably a great movie role for Black since he gets to play air guitar and make stupid "rock" faces.

Skip it.  1 out of 5 for Joan Cusack.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day

Released: 2008
Comedy, Romance
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds
Running Time: 92 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Based on a book written in 1938 by the same name by Winifred Watson, a recently fired governess works her way into being a social secretary to an up and coming actress.

I almost never use the word delightful for anything, but this movie was!
McDormand plays a governess who never seems to find the right house to work in and has just been fired again.  While she's at the agency that placed her before in jobs, her "boss" for lack of a better term refuses to place her anywhere else.  While getting kicked out, she steals an address for a possible job and goes there straight away.  Within minutes she proves to be too good for the up and coming actress that needed an assistant to let go and secures herself a job.  The governess is exposed to a world filled with luxury like she's never experienced and quickly becomes very influential on several people.
Taking place just before WWII the movie is full of old world glamour and Art Deco!  My favorite!
This movie is so charming, so fresh, so delightful, I can't believe it wasn't made into a movie sooner, although, I understand when it was originally released in the late 1930's the book was a smash and it was supposed to be made into a film but the start of WWII actually ended that possibility, then it was re-released by the publishing house in 2000 and was re-discovered all over again.

If you like romance, or the time period of the 1930's, or Art Deco, or laughing, this one is a winner.

I LOVED IT within just the first few minutes and I think you will too.
SEE IT!!!
5 out of 5!  It was so good, I wished it had been longer than just 1 hour and a half.

200 Cigarettes

Released: 1999
Comedy, Romance
Director: Risa Bramon Garcia
Starring: Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, Kate Hudson, Paul Rudd
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: On a New Year's Eve in 1981, several young singles search for fun and love.

Okay, so this is what the movie titled New Year's Eve tried to achieve but failed miserably.  Unlike Love Actually, or Valentine's Day or any ensemble cast recently for that matter, all the characters are interesting and fun to watch.  You look forward to each couple as another scene starts and you see how paths start to cross.  I loved the music of the 80's, the cameo from Elvis Costello, this comedy was actually funny.  I enjoyed it and easily can recommend it you.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for being funny and entertaining.
P.S.  I don't know why it's called 200 Cigarettes, although, I might take a guess that that is how many actual cigarettes are seen on screen during the entire movie.

Black Death

Released: 2010
Drama, action
Director: Christopher Smith
Starring: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  During the time of the bubonic plague in England, a monk sets out with a group of hardened soldiers to find out if reports are true about a small village bringing people back to life after death.

So, I kinda' just recorded this as a semi joke for my husband, who loves stories about the Black Plague, but I thought it was going to be about zombies.
Turns out there are no zombies involved, but necromancing and witchcraft instead.
A young monk is in love with a girl when the first casualties of the plague hit in England.  He tells her to leave and go to a safe place and wait for him for a week.
Luckily for him, a group of soldiers come through looking for a monk that they can take with them to guide them to a small village where reports of the dead being brought back to life must be investigated.
The young monk sees his opportunity and takes it.
He travels with this band for the duration of their needs and eventually find the girl, but it's not the way he planned.
Won't say anymore since the rest is better left to you to see for yourself.

It was a pretty good movie with some surprises in store.

3 1/2 out of 5 for something different and original, although it could've moved a bit faster at points for me.
SEE IT!

Red Eye

Released: 2005
Thriller
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rachel McAdams, Brian Cox
Running Time: 85 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A woman's father is threatened with death if she doesn't help a crazy man sitting next to her on the flight home to assassinate a politician.

McAdams is a hotel manager on a flight home when a strange man (Murphy) sitting next to her threatens to kill her father if she doesn't help him with an assassination attempt on a politician staying in her hotel.  Sounds far fetched, but it was directed by Wes Craven so that explains a lot.  Murphy's performance is flawless as usual, but the movie was just okay for me.

Murphy "accidentally" keeps running into McAdams at the airport before the flight, and then they end up being seat mates on the flight from Dallas to Miami on the over night flight.  At first he seems to just be friendly, but soon after they are in the air, he makes it apparent that he's been following her for weeks and needs her help in moving the politician from one room to another for an assassination attempt on his life.

The action scenes were good, the acting was good, just for some reason this movie turned out just good instead of great.

2 1/2 out of 5 for an excellent bad guy in Cillian Murphy.

The Descendants

Released: 2011
Drama
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley
Running Time: 115 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A family that lives in Hawaii suffers some major life traumas.  Based on the book by the same name.

So, Clooney plays a married man whose family owns a very large and very desirable piece of land in Hawaii.  While he and his family, like, 50 cousins, try to decide who to sell to, he also has to deal with his wife who is in a coma after a boating accident.
Turns out, the doctors did everything they could, but she's got a living will, and they will have to disconnect her from the machines soon.  He has the task of trying to re-connect with his two daughters and learn how to deal with information that came to light about his marriage only after she went into a coma.

This was a good solid movie, but it was incredibly depressing.  So much so, that it makes me wonder why someone would write a story like this, unless it was their own life story, or why they'd make a movie out of it.  There is no levity.

2 out of 5 for being good, but so depressing!  And it leaves you feeling a bit empty too.

Rear Window

Released: 1954
Mystery
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelley
Running Time: 112 minutes
Rated: PG

The breakdown: Based on a short story, a photographer with a broken leg is bound to his apartment with nothing else to do but stare out his window and sees a murder.

So I finally sat down and watched the classic that I'd heard so much about.  After viewing it, I can easily say it's the first true and only mystery movie I think I've ever seen.  It's well written, very interesting, and keeps you wondering what's happening until the very end.

So Stewart plays a professional photographer who's wheelchair bound in his New York apartment waiting for a cast to be removed from his leg.  He has nothing else to do but look out his rear window to watch his neighbors.  Eventually he stumbles upon what he thinks might be a murder, but he sees no actual crime and no body.  He soon ropes in his girlfriend and his nurse to help him investigate.

Filled with mystery and a big build up, the ending is satisfying.  I now understand why it's a classic and why it's received so much attention, not to mention the excellent ratings.

SEE IT if you haven't.  It's a treat.

5 out of 5 for being a fantastic story.  I'd watch it all over again too.

The Ring Two

Released: 2005
Horror
Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Naomi Watts, Simon Baker
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  After the events and success of the first film, despite it not being any good, there's a sequel to try to make Hollywood even more money on crappy films.

Oh yes, so the first one was not scary, so they make a sequel that's also not scary.
After the end of the first one, the mom and kid relocate to a different city, but the same stupid little dead/undead girl is following them.
She's now trying to possess the young son, and kills a few people along the way.

It's not even worth talking about at length.  The movie got really stupid when the mom and kid get attacked by killer deer on the road.

1 out of 5 for having Simon Baker in it.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Released: 2012
Revisionist Historic Horror
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Bejamin Walker, Dominic Cooper
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: In this fantasy tale, our 16th president was also a big time Vampire hunter and killer after his mother was killed by one when he was a child.

Based on a book by the same name, this ridiculous movie starts when Abe's just a boy and his mom gets killed by a vampire.  The rest of the movie works bits of truth in about Abe's accomplishments while he tracks down the one vampire that killed his mom.  This is just such a terribly un-entertaining movie, I'm not going to waste your time with a review.  There's really nothing beyond what I just said for the plot anyways.

1/2 out of 5 for sets and wardrobe.

Seeking A Friend for the End of the World

Released: 2012
Drama, Comedy
Director: Lorene Scafaria
Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: When an asteroid is due to hit Earth in 3 weeks, Steve Carell's wife leaves him and he takes a neighbor on a road trip to find his lost love.

I didn't know what to expect of this film.  I thought it might be stupid, not funny, and certainly not romantic.  It ended up being not funny, but very sweet and romantic.

After Steve Carell's wife leaves him, the world finds out that they only have 3 weeks left to live as a huge asteroid is about to hit and there's been a failed attempt to stop it.

Of course we see humanity at their worst with looting, people stop going to work, everyone's sleeping with everyone and getting drunk, but Carell's character wants none of the bad stuff.  He wants to go across a few states to reconnect with an old high school love.
By accident, a neighbor takes the ride along with him and find the lost love.
It's not the ending I expected, but I liked it a lot.

SEE IT!
4 out of 5 for being something new and thought-provoking as well as very sweet.

Red

Released: 2010
Action
Director: Robert Schwentke
Starring: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Some retired government CIA and spies get together to take out a mutual threat concerning all of them.

I had heard good things about this one from my family so I got a chance to watch it while I was sick with food poisoning.
Old spies and former government CIA types get the group back together to take out a threat to all of their safety.
Body count is high, but so is the laughs.
I thought it was funny and cute and don't have any problem recommending it.

3 out of 5 for being smart and entertaining.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Released: 2012
Author: E L James
Pages: 528 pages
IF there was a rating system for books this would be: X

Rundown: Ana is a virgin and about to graduate college.  Christian is a role playing Dominate who is also a young CEO of his own company, but he likes sex a lot and he likes to beat women to really get turned on.  Oh and he's so controlling, and creepy.

Well, I had heard a lot of things about this book: that it was for adults only, that it was like Twilight for adults, that it had a lot of sex, NY Times Best Seller, women were going crazy over it.  Well, I suppose if you've never had sex you'd go crazy over it, and if you didn't know what a good book or a good romance novel was supposed to be like, you might go crazy over it as well.

This was the first novel for the author so I will cut her some slack, but the copy editor should have helped her with some grammar problems, and her editor should have helped with some other plot issues, and continuity issues, and lack of character development issues, and issues of repetition, and taken out some of the sex because it's really there a lot of times just for sex's sake.

I'm writing my own romance novel right now so I'm really in tune with what should be working and what isn't.
Unfortunately, this book is full of repetition from how the male lead is described over and over again as hot, sexy, beautiful, etc, to how often the characters have sex for no other reason then to write another sex scene into the book and hope the audience is distracted from the book's other problems.

Yes, the book gets ridiculous from time to time, and the male lead seems to be physically perfect, but is an arrogant controlling, obsessive, aggressive, and dangerous asshole, but since he's beautiful, it's ok with the female lead that he scares her.
This book had actually made me stop reading at one point because I got physically ill with some of the control issues with bondage and such.

I usually enjoy when the main characters have sex, but halfway through, there was so much of it, I started just glossing over those scenes looking for character development.

Trust me, you're not missing anything by skipping this one.  In fact, I'm not even going to bother reading the next two, even though #1 left me on a cliffhanger.  I really don't care what happens next.  So glad I didn't pay full price for this book!

1 out of 5 for some laughs, intentional and otherwise, and a couple good sex scenes.
SKIP IT!

Magic Mike

Released: 2012
Drama (trying to be anyway)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum, Olivia Munn
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A veteran male stripper takes a new guy under his wing to teach him the ropes and how to seduce women.

I can easily say that this movie wasn't Magic at all and neither was Mike.
If you want to see a few scenes of your favorite male actor dancing around almost naked, this movie's for you.  If you want to see a good entertaining movie with some sort of story that's worth a damn, skip this movie.
I watched it for some research for a book I'm writing and it was a complete waste of time.  The story's very recycled.  Good guy ropes in a newbie for training.  They pal around, seduce women together, then the newbie gets involved with drugs and messes up big time, blah, blah, blah.

So stupid and boring I'm surprised I made it through the entire movie.

1 out of 5 for some hot naked male bodies gyrating around.

Chernobyl Diaries

Released: 2012
Horror
Director: Bradley Parker
Starring: Olivia Dudley, Jesse McCartney
Running Time: 86 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  A group of stupid tourists decide to visit the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters - Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia.

I knew this movie was going to suck when I sat down to watch it.  I just wanted to see how badly it would suck.  I fast forwarded through the first 25 minutes or so, as it had nothing to do with the plot.
The kids tour starts outside of the power plant's main town and they move inward from there.  They have a local tour guide sneak them in past the guards and I would say the movie goes downhill from there, but, it was all downhill so I can't say that.
The tour guide disappears after the battery to their car is dead, then they find him dead.  They are forced to stay there overnight and one by one get picked off.
It's a terrible, terribly boring movie where I was rooting for the bad guys, who I affectionately titled, the Potato People.
SKIP THIS ONE and do yourself a favor.
0 out of 5 for wasting my time.

The Notebook

Released: 2004
Romance
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A young couple's story is told through the eyes of the elderly couple they become.

I had heard A LOT about this movie and how it was some people's favorite love story OF ALL TIME.
Man, was that a joke.
This is based on a book with the same title by Nicholas Sparks, and although that book might be great, the movie was not.
It starts out with an elderly couple living in a retirement home and she has Alzheimer's (how romantic!)  The husband reads to her everyday trying to make her remember who they both are.  The movie goes back and forth between the young version and the old version.
A lack of chemistry and a lack of shame by the end of the film, this movie was a thumbs down for me.
The filmmakers really seemed determined to make you cry your eyes out, no matter how they did that, using all the plot devices and predictability they could muster.
The ending is shameless and embarrassingly bad.

0 out of 5 for me.
SKIP IT!!!

The Legend of Bagger Vance

Released: 2000
Drama
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A mysterious caddy helps a former golfer get his mojo back.

I actually only watched this because I thought Shia LeBeouf was in it.  Anyway, he's not, but I continued to watch it regardless.
A promising young golfer in the early 20th century gets called away to WWI and is scarred forever by what he experiences there.  When he is done with his call of duty he doesn't go back home to his girlfriend, and in fact, disappears for a very long time.
Only when the Depression hits and his former girlfriend is desperate to save her deceased father's golf course does he come out of hiding slowly.  A little boy that wants to see him play again begs him to get into the big tournament that is being held to attract money and attention to the little golf course that could.
He reluctantly thinks it over and only decides to really go after it when a mysterious man comes out of the darkness, literally, and tells him how to get his swing back.

I liked it and I can easily recommend it.

3 and 1/2 out of 5 for some good storytelling and solid acting.

Total Recall

Released: 2012
Sci-fi
Director: Len Wiseman
Starring: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston
Running Time: 118 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  A remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger Sci-fi film of the same name.

I call this Total Recall a total waste of time and it was totally unnecessary.

With that said, the basic plot is supposed to be closer to the original Phillip K. Dick story titled, "We can Remember it for you Wholesale."  Both movies were based on this short story, but the original I think adapted it into a much more interesting story line and a lot more entertaining.

This version switches things up and you certainly never get to go to Mars.  The world has been mostly destroyed by a chemical warfare agent and there's only two places that are left habitable...Australia and Britain.  People live and work in both places, but you get from one to the other by something called "The Fall."  It is a gigantic mode of transportation that takes you directly through the center of the Earth to get to the other side.
Obviously, Blade Runner still has a huge impact on Sci-fi films today because this one stole their visuals as far as the living quarters and streets go.  Everything's dark and rainy all the time, people are all squished together on busy streets and wearing clear coats, etc.  Lots and lots of visuals stolen from Blade Runner, so much so that my husband and I recognized it at the same time.

Anyway, I hate Colin Farrell and I loved the original movie so this was stinker for me.  The special effects were good and that's about it.

1 out of 5 for only the special effects.  All the fun of the first one was gone.
SKIP IT!!!! and watch the original again instead.  

The Running Man

Released: 1987
Sci-fi, Action
Director: Michael Paul Glaser
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yahpet Kotto
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: In the future of America, convicts compete for freedom on a brutal televised game show called The Running Man.

A former cop is falsely blamed for a massacre that didn't happen.  After his incarceration, a game show host wants him to be on his show.  Forced into being a contestant to try and save his friends, Arnold must compete if he wants to survive at all and give his friends a fighting chance after they are forced into the game as well.

This movie is pretty goofy and very VERY dated.  I liked the story, but this movie is so dated that watching it for the first time last night made me laugh out loud a LOT.

2 out of 5 for just plain goofiness.

Wrath of the Titans

Released: 2012
Fantasy
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
Running Time: 99 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: The flashy sequel to the remake of Clash of the Titans.

All style and special effects and no substance again.
Perseus is approached by his father to help the Gods overcome a mutual threat between humans and gods.  He's reluctant to leave his son to help Zeus, but when the village gets attacked, he changes his mind.

Lots of special effects, lots to look at, but the story is just mediocre.

1 and 1/2 out of 5 for the special effects.

The New World

Released: 2005
Drama
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Christian Bale, Colin Farrell
Running Time: 135 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Pocahontas and John Smith meet in Virginia in the early 1600's.

Let me say first that I have no interest in dramas depicting Native Americans or the "discovery" of North America.  I only wanted to see this for Christian Bale, having said that, this was terribly boring to me.
A lot of the movie lacks dialogue for obvious reasons, Native Americans cannot speak English and can't speak to the explorers of England.  I don't like Colin Farrell so I fast forwarded through most of the first half of the movie, because he's in it and not saying much to Pocahontas, just making moo cow eyes at her and eventually sleeping with her.

Mr. Bale doesn't show up until near the end of the movie and ends up sleeping with her too.  They get married and have a kid after she was told a while back that John Smith was dead.  When she finds out he's alive, they meet up in England, but do nothing but talk.

The end, oh I think she dies of some disease?  And then Christian and his son float off in a boat.

So boring for me, but if you like this kind of stuff, it may be for you.
I say skip it.
1 out of 5 for Christian Bale looking smoking hot as usual.

AVP: Alien vs. Predator

Released: 2004
Sci-fi
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova
Running Time: 101 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Aliens and Predator aliens fight each other on Earth.

I actually wanted to see this in theaters, but just got around to it last night.  Glad I didn't spend the money on it in theaters.

Basically the head of the Weyland Corp. Mr. Weyland wants to explore a new pyramid that he's found out in the middle of a frozen wasteland.  No one else has ever been there so he collects a team of experts to help him explore it.  Turns out it's a Predator ship where they breed aliens.  The people wake up the ship by accident and then Predator police are dispatched to the scene from space to control the damage of freshly woken aliens.
Most of the action scenes are ridiculously impossible physical feats and the plot just isn't very good.

Skip it.
2 out of 5 for special effects, but not much else.

A Sound of Thunder

Released: 2005
Sci-fi
Director: Peter Hyams
Starring: Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: A researcher and a scientist try to save humanity after a time travel jump goes wrong.

The movie was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.  I'm sure the short story was good, but the movie was atrocious.
Basically in the future, there's a company that allows people to go on a hunting trip 65 million years into the past to shoot down a T-Rex.  The participants are informed to not touch anything or go off the path or else they might change something that effects the future.
Of course, an idiot jerk does something and things start to change when the team returns to their normal time.
A scientist and a researcher that leads the safari trips team up to try to go back and fix whatever went wrong, once they figure out what that thing is.

The special effects were completely not special, and instead laughably bad.  A short story was obviously stretched to try to fill in almost two hours when their simply wasn't enough material for it.  That's why in this movie you end up with half dinosaur, half monkey beings.

Trust me, you want to skip this one altogether.
1 out of 5 for having Ed Burns take off his shirt.

Battleship

Released: 212
Action, sci-fi
Director: Peter Berg
Starring:  Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard
Running Time: 131 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Aliens invade near Hawaii and some Naval ships try to save the world.

In a very minor way this movie was based on the board game by Hasbro, but it really doesn't have anything to do with that game.
Basically aliens invade Earth after we send out a beam of communications to a distant planet that is discovered to be a lot like Earth.  During a training exercise, the Navies of the world meet up near Hawaii and some ships end up getting locked in by an alien force field.  The one screw up at the beginning of the film has to save the world, all while doing it with Rihanna as part of his team.

This movie has some great special effects and I liked the way the aliens looked and their space suits and all, but this movie is all style and no substance.  I think it would've worked better as a comedy since there are some genuinely funny moments, but otherwise it's pretty shallow.  The characters have no depth and the movie has no heart.  You don't care if the characters die as long as it's spectacular to look at.  Oh yes, and I should mention that like all other movies of this type, the characters have the list of commonly spoken phrases like, "I didn't sign up for this."  or "Light em up boys."

2 out of 5 for special effects and the hot guy from John Carter.
P.S. Rihanna stick to your day job, you are certainly no actress.

Bioshock Infinite

Released: 2013
First person shooter
Fantasy

This is the third installment of the Bioshock series, but is not a direct sequel from the first or second.
Here you play a man named Booker DeWitt who needs to get rid of debts by getting and handing over a girl from a place called Columbia.  Columbia is a city that floats in the sky.  The girl is named Elizabeth.

I was looking forward to this game for a while now and I loved the first two.  I knew this one would be very different, but I had no idea what it was going to be like.

I really can't tell you more about the plot because this kind of game is better experienced than for me to tell you too much, but it's very smart and well written.  The characters are interesting, the game play is exciting, the action/shooting parts are great fun and the plot is better than most movies out there today.  I enjoyed the hell out of it and the ending was something I totally did not expect.

There's a reason this game has won 85 awards and is getting 10's or close to perfect for a lot of game review sources.

PLAY IT!!!!!
4 and 3/4 for me out of 5 only because the last half hour of play is overflowing with information and I would've liked it to slow down so I could better process everything that happened.

Happy Easter

The book is still going well and demanding almost all of my internet time.
Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to be saying Happy Easter here.

I'm not religious so this day really doesn't mean anything to me except for eggs, chocolate, bunnies, and chicks, so.....
Happy Easter anyway!

Snow White and the Huntsman

Released: 2012
Fantasy
Director: Rupert Sanders (You know, he's the guy that cheated on his wife with Kristen Stewart.  Who knows why?)
Starring: Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Icky Kristen Stewart
Running Time: 127 long LONG minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: The classic story of Snow White and the Evil Queen all messed up by Hollywood.

So, I didn't really want to see this movie, but Charlize Theron was in it and I love her so I sat through it.
It was pretty crappy.
It was all style and no substance - a lot like all the other fairy tale movies as of late.
All the special effects were nice, Charlize's wardrobe was phenomenal, but the story didn't hold up.
Charlize was great as an evil queen, she was commanding and beautiful as usual, Chris Hemsworth was hunky and decent as usual, but the weakest link (well, besides the lack of substance in the story) was Ms. Kristen Stewart.  Looking uninterested or like she just smelled something really bad, her acting was crap as usual.

I will never sit through this movie again.  And I don't recommend it to anyone.
SKIP IT!

2 out of 5.  1 for Charlize, and 1 for the special effects, otherwise it's crap.

I forgot the plot.
Here it is:
Snow white grows up a prisoner of the evil queen after her mother dies, and the queen marries then kills the King.  Eventually, Snow White breaks out and is hunted down.  The queen sends a hunter after Snow and he finds her, but ends up helping her out instead of turning her over.  Blah, blah, blah.....the plot's really boring and I'll forget about this movie in a couple of minutes.

About to hit week 9 of P90X

So today is the last day of week 8 for me.  This week has been light as it is a recovery week.  Doesn't mean I get to sit on my ass, it means the work outs are a little lighter.
I've lost 4 pounds so far and probably would've lost more if I had eaten right.  But I'm pleased that I'm losing any weight at all.  I'm over the halfway mark and I'm glad I'm getting strong enough to finish the workouts from beginning to end.
We will see what the next 40 days or so brings.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Released: 2012
Fantasy
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan
Running Time: 169 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  The beloved book of J.R.R. Tolkien comes to life in a longer than necessary movie.

I already knew this movie was very very long, so I skipped in the theaters and watched it at home recently.
Based on the book "The Hobbit" this movie was full of CG and over the top gimmicks.  Still, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I didn't like the book when I read it, and I only read it after I saw the first LOTR movie and fell in love with that story.

I still don't like the book, but I'd say 80% of the movie was good, while 20% was too much junk thrown in for eye candy.

The main plot, although I think you are already familiar with it-
Bilbo Baggins gets approached by Gandalf the Grey for an adventure with a lot of dwarves.  At first, Bilbo is very resistant and just wants all of them to leave, but after a night's sleep, he changes his mind and goes along with them for an adventure of his own to tell others about.  While out in the world, he comes across all sorts of new things including trolls, giant birds, and elves.  He's feels as though he doesn't belong, but soon finds out he does.

3 out of 5 for some good stuff, but still a lot of stuff that just could've been left out.

Rock of Ages

Released: 2012
Musical
Director: Adam Shankman
Starring: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise
Running Time: 123 agonizing minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  Based on the play of the same name, this story is about a young mid-west girl that travels to Los Angeles to become a music star.

This movie has gone down in history for me.  Within the first two minutes, I let out my first groan of agony.  I don't think any movie has ever made me do that this early on, and it just got worse from there.
I can only assume that anyone who was anyone knew this stank before they finished reading the script and promptly turned it down.  The only person who could actually sing well in it, was the professional singer, Mary J. Blige.  
Tom Cruise didn't suck at singing, but I wouldn't pay to hear him do it, since I can't stand him in the first place.
Julianne Hough may be a great dancer, but that's where her talents end.  She should stop trying to act, and REALLY PLEASE stop singing.  It was awful!
And seeing Russel Brand and Alec Baldwin sing and fall in love with each other, uck, yuck, vomit.

Oh, yeah, the plot.
Hough plays a young impressionable innocent girl from Oklahoma who goes to L.A. to make it as a singer.  She ends up as a waitress in a bar, and then a strip club.  I think she's also supposed to be a stripper at some point, but they make that ambiguous so you're really not sure.  She meets a guy who works at the first bar she waitresses at and he's a singer too!  Big surprise, he asks her out.  Blah, blah, blah, it's too boring, overdone with superficial and stereotyped characters to give a crap about to talk about the rest of the plot.

PLEASE DON'T WATCH THIS.
1 out of 5 for some well choreographed strip pole dancing.

My husband

I know I've given my husband a bad rap on my blog for years, but recently he's been doing a lot better.  We recently shared our 5th wedding anniversary and his father pretty much ruined it for both of us.
My husband probably feeling bad for me, took us out to two dinners to celebrate and he got my favorite flowers delivered to me yesterday.
It was very sweet of him to be so thoughtful and I just wanted to point that out in front of the world.
Thanks hubby!

BIG Announcement

For anyone still reading this blog.....I know it's not many, but if you're reading this you should know I'm starting a novel.
It's always been a passion of mine, and I've always been told, I'm good at it.  So I'm throwing my hat in the ring and am gonna' do it for real.  I've got 50 pages so far and am asking for a little help.
I'm contacting people directly, but if you haven't received a request yet and would like to help me by answering some simple questions about what's sexy and great love stories, please contact me through this site or any other way you know how to reach me.

Since I'm putting so much passion into my story, that means this blog will probably fall behind it's daily schedule quite often.  So if you don't see anything here for a week or so at a time, don't worry, it's means I'm working hard on my book, but I will try to stay as up to date as I can on this.

Wish me luck!  I really want to get this one published!!!!

Exit Humanity

Released: 2011
Drama, Horror
Director: John Geddes
Starring: Brian Cox, Mark Gibson, Dee Wallace
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rated: Not Rated

The breakdown:  A bit of revisionist history here as the zombie outbreak occurs during the American Civil War.

My husband had heard a lot about this film and wanted to see it.  I had nothing better to do so I sat through it with him.  Turned out to be a pretty good little movie.
During the American Civil War, a soldier finds out that the dead are rising on the battlefields.  Pretty soon, the population is overcome and he runs home to his family.  His wife turns and his boy runs away.  While he's  searching for his son, he sees how bad it has become out in the world.  He makes some friends, fights some human bad guys, and kills a lot of dead bad guys.

I don't want to ruin it for you since a lot of what happens to the main character should stay a surprise to fully appreciate the film.  I can tell you, it's original, well done, and well acted.

If you like dramas, or zombie pics - watch this one!

4 out of 5 for being a small budget film that punches like a big budget film with an entertaining story.  GO SEE IT!

The Omen

Released: 2006
Horror
Director: John Moore
Starring: Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles
Running Time: 110 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown:  The remake of the 1976 horror classic of the same name, except there wasn't any apparent reason to do so.  The plot's about a young child that is potentially the anti-Christ.

So, I've never seen the original, but my husband had and he wanted to see how different this version was.  According to him, it was the same and there was no reason to remake it.

The plot is that a young couple loses their child in childbirth and of all people to recommend this, a priest pulls the father aside before the mother was told she lost the baby and says he has another baby where the mother died and why doesn't he take this child and pass it off as his own to the mother.
The guy does and the boy grows up as their own.
As he gets older, the family starts to be plagued with a lot of unusual problems of people close to them committing suicide and such.  Things just get worse from there and people come to the man trying to explain this child is the devil.  The father, of course, doesn't believe them, until things get really weird.

I thought the plot was ok, but I'm eager to see the original for differences and how it was originally intended to be seen.

2 out of 5 for Liev Schreiber.  Skip it.

The Walking Dead Video Game featuring Lee and Clementine

Released: 2012
Rated: M for mature

Since I loved the tv show, my husband decided to buy this for me on our PS3 and play it together to watch the story.
You play a character named Lee that was a murderer before the zombie outbreak, but due to some unforeseen events gets busted free and has to find his way through the world alone.
You travel around and find a little girl all alone in a tree house named Clementine.  She's sweet and you decide to take care of her.
The rest of the game is you doing everything you can to protect her through various situations.

If you want to play it, I'm not going to ruin much of the story line for you, but I can say, sometimes you'll travel alone, sometimes with a group.  People you like will die, and people you don't like will die.

I enjoyed the story of the game, but felt like the ending was pure audience emotional manipulation due to Robert Kirkman's insane control over his work.  He's terribly protective of it and seems to really only be good for comics, not for tv, or games.  With that said, I wouldn't recommend that you skip it, if you like the tv show.  Just be prepared for gritty on screen deaths and horrible circumstances for anyone to live through.

The thing I disliked was the controls for the PS3.  Most other games have much more advanced systems for moving, weapons load outs, ammo, hand to hand combat, and they do well with simple controls.  For some reason the game's simple moving and fighting is very poorly done for PS3.  I don't know if it's equally frustrating on PC or other gaming systems, but I know it for Playstation.

3 out of 5 for a good story, but bad controls and an ending I think was manipulative that didn't have to be.

To whom it may concern

Whoever the hell is spamming my comments with meaningless drivel and promoting their own websites needs to stop.  Your comments will not be allowed to be viewed on my pages and will be deleted immediately.
Thanks.

I just want to say

I know I've not kept up with my blog for a few months last year, probably cutting out any interest from my friends in checking it out, BUT today I'm really just using this to spew out some stuff that's been bugging me today.
First off my father-in-law comes up here to my level of the house, only AFTER my husband leaves for work and just walks into my living room and stares at the couch.  I ask him if there's something he needs.  No answer.  I ask him if he wants his couch back (most of the furniture is his after all).  He finally says that he bought some new couches for his level and was wondering if one would fit up here.  After he walks into the den and yells out JESUS!  really loud, he says we probably don't have any room.  Then he says he thinks "It's high time you guys started your own life.  So when do you think you'll be moving?  Well, do you think you'll actually be able to move to Arizona?"
I hate him.
I hate him.
I hate him.
He's loud and obnoxious and demanding and nosy.  He asks questions and makes assumptions he has NO business making.
And today is my wedding anniversary.  My 5 year anniversary and my husband isn't even home for it.
I'm not going to call my husband and ask him if he thinks his dad will throw us out, but that's what I'm worried about.  Plus, I'm not too crazy about what Al says about my life with my husband.  I know we are living in his house and all, but my husband said his dad wasn't doing anything with this space up here and he won't do anything with it after we leave like rent it out or furnish it or anything.
Ohhhh I hate him.
Of course, I want to get the hell out of here.  I've wanted that since the moment I got here!  I hate this place, I hate him, and he's totally put me into a different mind set where I can't write my book!
I'm writing a book by the way, a novel, and now I'm enraged enough to not be able to write.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Memory

Released: 2006
Horror?
Director: Bennett Davlin
Starring: Billy Zane, Dennis Hopper
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: A researcher starts having strange dreams after he is exposed to an unknown substance.

So, I only watched this because I was desperate to make more room on my DVR.  I should've just erased it all together without watching it.  It was pretty stupid.

First off this researcher is in another country, Brazil, and he finds out through other doctors that this patient's come in with a strange memory problem.  All 5 brain parts that deal with memory have been affected and he's covered in this red sand.  While the researcher is checking out the ziploc baggie with the red sand stuff, he realizes he's the only one to have a pair of gloves that have a hole in them.  SO, he's the only one that has been directly exposed to it.  The patient dies, and the researcher starts to have really vivid strange dreams that hit him any time of day or night.
When he gets back to the states, the dreams continue and he realizes that they are memories from a serial killer.

Anyway, it's a ridiculous plot not really worth talking about.  I even tried to tell my husband about it and just gave up, it was too dumb.

SKIP IT please!
1 out of 5 for having Billy Zane, who's really hot when he has hair.

This Means War

Released: 2012
Comedy, Romance
Director: McG
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy
Running Time: 97 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown: Two CIA agents that are also friends begin fighting each other after they start dating the same woman.


Ok so this looked like a terrible movie and it got terrible reviews, but it had Tom Hardy in it and I wanted to see him, so I watched it in pieces over the course of 3 days.

It wasn't as terrible as I thought, but of course, it wasn't great either.  Here's the plot:

Two CIA partners that have been friends for a long time get some down time off their job after they screw up.  Tom Hardy decides to join an online dating website to find a girl.  Chris Pine gives him flack and says it's a bad idea.  Hardy finds a girl and meets her at the local pub, they hit it off and then she leaves to go rent a movie for the night.  Pine was in the area, offering help to Hardy if he needed to bail out on the date, but instead meets the same girl while he's in the movie rental area.
When the boys return to work, they both start talking about the girl and show each other a picture of her, when they realize it's the same one, they both want to back off to honor their friendship, but then decide to let the woman decide.  After they lay down some ground rules, they both go on dates with her, and it's all out war after that since they both decide they really like her.

The premise is completely unrealistic (as most romcom's are) but parts at least, were funny, and Hardy looks particularly handsome, so he made it worth it.

It was ok.  I will neither recommend it, nor tell you to completely avoid it.  If you like romcom's, you'll probably  like this.  If you like action, you will probably not like this.

2 out of 5 for some laughs.  Witherspoon plays herself again, the same boring character as most of her movies, so if you like that, there you go.