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.

My opinion of the new and old ending of Mass Effect 3

Since I finished playing Mass Effect with its original ending and then found out about the "revised" version, I figured I might want to address the new ending in a new post.
I posted my experience of the original already in an earlier post so this one will just cover the new ending.

So now we have 4 different endings.
When I started replaying the end scene after I had talked with the catalyst, I was so mad at it for still forcing me to make a decision, I just shot at it and I discovered the ending where you make no decision.  It got pissed off and said the cycle would continue and that was it.

Then I re-picked my original choice of synthesis and saw all the added stuff....The relays not completely blowing up, extended scenes of my crew mourning my death, the Earth being saved, planets get rebuilt, people live, etc. etc.
If you've played the game or done any research you'll see the original 3 endings of destroy, synthesis, and controlling the reapers have been "updated" a bit.  What I was missing was the original beauty of the first endings.  I know a lot of people were mad over them, but what they had, the rewrites were missing, and that's emotion, beauty, and an artistic heartbreaking end.

Video games now-a-days, can be just like movies.  Just as entertaining as movies, with either just as good a script, or in this game's case, even a better script than most movies.  What I loved about the entire series, is the writing, the characters, the fantastic story, and the original ending did not let me down in those cases.  Sure I was disappointed that it was over, only because  I never wanted it to end at all.  I wasn't mad at the ending itself, in fact, the music, the cinematography, the quiet and stillness of a dialogue-less ending in the last few minutes was so emotional for me, I just cried.

The utter braveness of the Commander not just stepping into her/his fate, but in my case, running into the beam of energy with all the strength she had left, knowing this would give the galaxy peace, finally, it was so emotional.  I still think about it sometimes and it makes me tear up, it was really well done and beautiful in my opinion.

When a story ends, you have to accept it, the way it was written.  It pissed me off that "fans" demanded that that was not the ending, that it be changed.  No one does that with books, or movies, or tv shows....Once it's done, it's done and BioWare was actually really generous trying to go back and give the bitching "fans" some more explanation.

Good stories, don't tell you everything, they let you discover what the ends means to you, personally.  How you interpret it, is up to you, and there's nothing wrong with that.  Maybe for people who can't think critically, or think for themselves and need to be told every last detail had problems with the original ending, but I didn't.  I really enjoyed it and thought it was perfect the way it was.  It was tragic, and heroic, sad and beautiful all at the same time.  It gave me a real feeling, an experience, it wasn't just a video game by the end, it was an adventure that was personal to me all the way through to the very end, and it was great ride.

It's the best damn video game I have ever played, and probably always will be.
For me it was perfect the way it originally ended and that was all I needed.

Thankskilling

Released: 2009
Horror, Comedy
Director: Jordan Downey
Starring: Lance Predmore, Ryan E. Francis, and other nobodies
Running Time: 70 minutes
Rated: NR

The breakdown:  A murderous, vengeful talking turkey goes around terrorizing some teens in a small town.

My husband wanted to rent this one thinking it would be good for laughs.  I must say the ridiculousness of the trailer was good for quite a few laughs.  So we got it.

During the first thanksgiving, a Native American shaman curses the white people that killed his people and has released his evil spirit into a turkey.  Every 500 years or so, this turkey rises up and kills all the white people it sees with things like axes or whatever he can get his wings on.  Unfortunately for a group of college kids on Thanksgiving break, the turkey has picked this group to kill.

Full of vulgarity, sexual references, nudity, and bloody gore, this movie is not for kids.  Also full of terrible special effects, bad acting, and a terrible plot, this movie isn't for anyone looking for a good movie.
Please don't take it seriously, it is not intended to be, but it was good for laughs for the sheer absurdity of it all.

2 and 1/2 out of 5 for making me laugh quite a lot.

Chronicle

Released: 2012
Sci-fi
Director: Josh Trank
Starring: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and other nobodies
Running Time: 84 minutes
Rated: PG-13

The breakdown:  3 high school friends make a discovery that leaves them with superhero like powers.

So there's this teenage boy that you're supposed to feel sorry for.  He has no real friends, likes to video tape everything all the time, has no girlfriend, and gets abused by his father, oh yeah, his mom's dying too.
He's a miserable guy.  Anyway, he goes to a party with one of the guys who hangs out with him occasionally.  While there, the kid who's running for class president says they need his camera because he found something interesting in the ground.
The three boys touch this glowing alien thing in a cavern in the ground, and are gifted with super powers like flying, telekinesis, and super strength.
As they keep to themselves and learn to hone their powers, the boy you're supposed to feel sorry for, turns into a real asshole.
I won't ruin the ending for you, though, I don't think you should bother, but by the end of the film, you hate him.  At least, I did and didn't feel sorry for him in the slightest.

Skip it.  It's stupid and was unintentionally funny.
1 out of 5.

P90X week #5

So today I started off week 5 of my P90X adventure.
It was chest, triceps and shoulders, plus the ab ripper after.
Lots of grunting and struggling, but I made it through it.
My arms are sore now, but not half as sore as they'll be tomorrow I'm betting.
Just a little update for you who are curious.
I can't wait to see what's in store tomorrow.