Reviews and More

The total cost associated with having a baby continues to increase year after year. I know a lot of my friends would like to add to their families, but they are a bit hesitant to do so because they’re worried about being able to cover any charges that their insurance policies don’t pick up. These are legitimate concerns, and I can’t say I blame them. Who wants to get stuck with a couple thousand dollars in hospital bills after a maternity stay?

That’s why I think the Maternity Card from AHCO is well worth a look. In return for a small monthly membership fee, the Maternity Card covers all costs related to pregnancy care. This includes prenatal visits as well as delivery costs and the post-delivery stay. Furthermore, Maternity Card members are guaranteed to save at least the cost of their yearly membership or they’ll get the difference back plus an additional $200. In other words, you have nothing to lose here!

The program is even open to those who are already pregnant, which I think is an excellent idea. I know other insurance programs won’t even consider taking on a pregnant woman, so the Maternity Card could end up being a real blessing to lots of people.

If you’re interested in this program, I encourage you to visit the MaternityCard.com website for more details. You can consult with an expert to develop a maternity benefits package to meet your specific needs, so check it out today.

Shia LaBeouf’s new thriller Disturbia raked in $23 million over the weekend to earn the No.1 spot at the box office. I haven’t seen any trailers for this film, but the written description makes it sound a heck of a lot like Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Could be a good one, I guess. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder’s comedy Blades of Glory dropped to second place with a $14.1 million haul, while Disney’s Meet the Robinsons was third with $12.1 million.

The Tarantino double-feature Grindhouse slipped all the way down to 10th place with just $4.2 million in ticket sales, which is definitely disappointing. But it begs the question: why would anyone think that people today would be interested in that kind of B-movie schlock?

Here’s the complete top 10:

1. Disturbia, $23 million
2. Blades of Glory, $14.1 million
3. Meet the Robinsons, $12.1 million
4. Perfect Strangers, $11.5 million
5. Are We Done Yet?, $9.2 million
6. Pathfinder, $4.8 million
7. Wild Hogs, $4.6 million
8. The Reaping, $4.6 million
9. 300, $4.3 million
10. Grindhouse, $4.2 million

I used to be pretty good about making regular deposits into my savings account, but haven’t done so recently because I wasn’t seeing much of a return for my efforts. I have a very basic account that offers an annual interest rate of less than 1 percent, so even if I maintained a pretty healthy balance, I wouldn’t be earning much money on it.

I know there are accounts out there that pay better; it’s just a matter of taking the time to look for them. That’s why tonight I’ve decided to compare online banking interest rates, savings accounts features and find a new savings account or checking account that earns more interest with SavingsAccounts.com. SavingsAccounts.com is an easy-to-use site designed to help consumers find high yield savings and checking accounts. Right on the first page, I can see 11 different financial institutions offering rates of 5.00 percent or more, so I know I can be doing much better than I am now.

One of the basic principles of building wealth is to put your money to work for you. Since I’m too conservative to put my money in riskier investment vehicles, a high yield savings account is the next best thing. SavingsAccounts.com can point me in the right direction, then it will be up to me to take the final steps. I need to get this done soon!

I’ve had the 2006 film The Holiday on my list of movies to see for a few months now, primarily because of the cast involved in the project. We’re talking Cameron Diaz, Edward Burns, Jude Law, Jack Black, and of course Kate Winslet, who is definitely one of the best actresses in the business today. I finally got around to watching The Holiday early last week, not knowing anything about the plot beforehand — except that many people dismissed this film as just another chick flick.

Diaz stars as a successful career woman named Amanda. She owns her own company and cuts movie trailers for a living. But, as with most highly successful women in the movies, Amanda’s personal life has suffered thanks to her devotion to her career. She had been living with Ethan (Burns), but throws him out of the house after discovering that he cheated on her with a younger woman. With Christmas around the corner, Amanda is desperate to get out of town and forget about everything that’s going wrong with her love life.

Next up, we meet a young English woman named Iris (Winslet) who works for the Daily Telegraph in London. For the last three years, Iris has been hung up on a co-worker named Jasper (Rufus Sewell). They dated for a bit and slept together, but then Jasper moved on to other women — all the while stringing Iris along by continuing to come to her with his problems, by saying he doesn’t know why he “let her go,” etc.

In other words, this guy uses Iris because he knows that she worships him. He gets her to proofread his articles and pages from the novel he’s working on, but somehow forgets to mention that he’s now engaged to a girl from the circulation department. When Iris hears this announcement at the company Christmas party, it’s all she can do to keep it together in front of everyone. It’s clear that she needs to get away, too.

So it’s a good thing that Iris had her cottage listed on a home exchange website. Amanda finds it, and the two arrange (by IM) to swap houses, cars — lives — for the holiday. They jet off the very next day, so now we get Iris in L.A. and Amanda in England.

Although the women had hoped to take time for themselves, they soon realize it’s not going to be that simple. For one thing, Iris’s brother Graham (Jude Law) drops by the cottage in a drunken stupor in the middle of the night. He didn’t know that Iris was gone, but Amanda lets him in anyway. The two get to talking, and then they sleep together. Amanda figured it would help her get over Ethan, plus she decided to go back home early, so it’s not as though she’ll have to deal with any fallout.

Over in L.A., Iris soon meets Miles (Black), who works with both Ethan and Amanda. Miles didn’t know that Amanda was out of town, but he and Iris hit it off, so he starts coming around more often even though he’s currently dating someone.

From there, The Holiday takes its time developing the two main female leads as well as the blossoming love interests that each of them finds in their new locales. There is also a major subplot involving an aged writer that Iris befriends, as well as a nice twist involving the Jude Law character. This is quite a lot to fit into one movie, so it’s no wonder that the running time extended past two hours.

My Reaction: I actually liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would once I figured out what the main premise was. I think the biggest reason for this was Kate Winslet’s performance. She just took over the screen whenever she was on, and I really bought her turn as this lovesick woman who desperately needed to break away from the never-available man in her life. Cameron Diaz was less convincing as Amanda, but Jude Law’s charm more than made up for that in all the scenes they were in together.

The story itself ranked a bit high on the unlikely coincidence scale, but I was willing to overlook that fact since most Christmas movies take liberties with that sort of thing. And even though there was so much going on in the film, I thought the pacing was excellent throughout. In fact, there were hardly any slow or boring parts at all, which is a rare feat for a romantic comedy.

Overall, I had a great time watching The Holiday. I give it 7.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you watch it for some great performances by Kate Winslet and Jude Law.