Reviews and More

With three new House episodes airing in a span of just seven days, I figured that I would wait until I watched all of them before presenting my thoughts on each ep. That way, I could get this out of the way in a single post rather than subjecting you to three House posts in a week.

As usual, I won’t be giving a full recap of the episodes because House doesn’t really lend itself to that sort of thing, what with all the misdiagnosed ailments that are impossible to spell and whatnot. So you’ll just have to make do with random thoughts and reactions, which I’ll try to keep separated by episode (but I might get mixed up on a couple of details).

Episode 4×10: It’s a Wonderful Lie

– It felt so weird seeing a full blown Christmas episode at the end of January. With the lack of original programming due to the WGA strike, do you mean to tell me that FOX couldn’t fit this ep into the schedule sometime in December?

– I knew as soon as House started writing out names for the Secret Santa that he put himself down five times. I also knew that Kutner would want to give him a gift anyway, but didn’t think that Taub and 13 would follow suit.

– How cool was it to see Donna (Janel Moloney) from the West Wing again? It reminded me of how much I miss the Josh/Donna dynamic.

– Um, count me among those who think it’s completely inappropriate for a mother to tell her 11-year-old daughter what her favorite sexual positions are. An adult daughter? Maybe. But an 11-year-old??? No way!

– I liked House’s remark about trying bondage once, only to have the woman tie him up and whine about how hard it is to be the Dean of Medicine. Ha! But other than that, the constant sexual references in this ep were off-putting. A donkey show? Really?

Episode 4×11: Frozen

– This was the Super Bowl episode, and it was a good one! It would have to be good to follow that awesome game, so I’m glad it lived up to the hype.

– I dislike these teasers where the person who ends up being House’s patient isn’t the one who was first injured. In 4×10, the daughter fell from the rock climbing wall, so it looked like she would need medical attention, but it turned out to be the mom. In 4×11, it looked like the guy with the severed artery and frozen blood would need help, but it turned out to be his rescuer. This has happened in previous seasons too, and the gimmick is getting as old as JJ Abrams’s favorite “48 Hours Earlier” trick from Alias.

– Mira Sorvino was awesome as the guest star, and managed to generate tons of chemistry with House despite the fact that they were never even in the same room.

– There were a lot of moments where I had to hide my eyes, particularly with the skull drilling and the urine drinking. Yuck and yuck.

– Wilson and CTB are a couple??? Wow, that came out of nowhere! And I liked it! (I also loved how Wilson turned and ran away from House, knowing he couldn’t possibly follow. Heh.

Episode 4×12: Don’t Ever Change:

– I thought this episode was pretty uneven. I couldn’t follow half of the religious stuff, so I sort of tuned out whenever the characters were discussing that — which was often.

– Oh, look: Olivia Wilde is playing a bisexual character. What a shocker.

– I thought the House/Wilson “You’re dating me!” thing was kind of funny, but it

– It was nice to see Chase contribute something a bit more substantial this week. I find that I kind of miss him, as Kutner, Taub, and 13 are all poor substitutes. Sigh.

– I found the actual case to be pretty boring, especially coming just two days after the excellent “Frozen”. And the cause of all that woman’s suffering was a floating kidney? Seems pretty simple when the answer is right there, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I think that’s all for House for the season, unless the writers get a new contract pretty quickly. Until then, I’ll be looking for other things to fill up my Tuesdays!

By now, everyone knows about the mortgage crisis here in the U.S. that has led to an alarming number of foreclosures across the country. The media has been painting a pretty bleak picture of the situation for months, so the story has been hard to avoid.

These types of problems aren’t limited to our shores, of course, which is why the services provided by companies such as Money Magic in the U.K. are so important for consumers. At the Money Magic website, you can get free quotes for Mortgages simply by entering entering some basic information about yourself and talking to an independent financial advisor on the phone.

Money Magic has developed a reputation for providing great rates to borrowers — without the hassle of a credit check or any of the other red tape typically associated with the loan process. Their website also features a lot of free financial advice that can help you get your personal money matters in order, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

It sounds to me as though Money Magic provides a very valuable service to families and individuals in need of mortgage assistance or general financial advice. It’s too bad they don’t operate here in the U.S., as I know plenty of people who need this type of help!

My husband and I usually take turns choosing which movies to rent whenever we go to the video store. Yesterday was his turn, so he decided to get Vacancy since he likes horror/suspense type films, and because Kate Beckinsale is in it. I’d never even heard of this movie before, but I checked it out on IMDB.com and was encouraged by its 6.4 rating. I wasn’t expecting an Oscar contender, of course, but figured Vacancy would at least be entertaining. Wrong.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Beckinsale and Luke Wilson star as Amy and David Fox, a couple whose marriage has been on the rocks ever since their young son died. Amy deals with the pain by popping antidepressants whenever she can, while David does his best to try to get back to a normal life.

As they’re driving home from a visit to Amy’s family’s house, David has to suddenly swerve to avoid hitting an animal in the middle of the road. The car sustains some damage, which requires them to stop off at a nearby gas station to have it checked out. The mechanic on duty says that there’s a minor problem with the fan blades, but they should be able to make it to the next decent-sized city, which is about 30 miles away. However, the car breaks down (for good this time) just a mile down the road, so David and Amy head back to the gas station on foot.

The station is closed by that time, and since there’s no cell reception to call for a tow truck, they decide to check out a dumpy motel down the block. The manager, a man named Mason (played by Frank Whaley), tells them that their best bet would be to get a room for the night and wait until the gas station opens up again in the morning. David and Amy agree.

As they try to settle into their room, they hear someone pounding on the door. Problem is, no one’s out there and Mason says they’re the only guests that night. Then the phone starts ringing, but no one talks when Amy picks up. And finally, David pops in a couple of videotapes that were left in the room, only to discover that they’re snuff films. Some sicko has recorded people being murdered in the very room that David and Amy are staying in.

The couple soon realizes what kind of danger they’re in, and the rest of the film then deals with their attempts to make it out of the motel alive.

My Reaction: I thought this movie started out reasonably well. The opening scenes were a bit slow, but they were necessary to establish the characters of Amy and David so the audience could get a feel for them before they were thrown into the motel situation. I even thought their arrival at the motel, the initial meeting with the creepy Mason, and the slow discovery of the snuff films was okay as well. But once the black-clad killers showed up, the movie went downhill for me.

I mean, the premise (psycho motel manager and two associates kill guests in order to sell snuff films for a profit) seemed interesting enough, but the execution was horrible. I found it hard to suspend my disbelief regarding David and Amy’s ability to keep three seasoned (and armed) killers at bay just by running in and out of their motel room. Give me a break!

And nearly everything David and Amy did annoyed me — to the point that I wanted them to get caught. I think it’s a pretty bad sign when viewers actively root against your heroes, right? But let’s see here, they dropped down into a tunnel and started crawling through it without having any idea where it led or who was waiting down there; they kept calling 911 even though that didn’t help them at all; and they somehow found it appropriate to make out a couple of times despite the fact that their lives were supposed to be in danger.

Oh, and why is it that movie characters can’t just be quiet when they’re supposed to? How freakin’ loud was Amy when she was hiding up in that crawlspace?? How did Mason not hear her gasps and squeals? Sheesh.

Don’t even get me started on David’s ability to survive stab wounds or on the stupid non-ending.

Overall, I found Vacancy to be an utter waste of time, and am beginning to think that the IMDB.com rating system is seriously flawed. I give this film just 3.5 stars out of 10 and recommend that you stay far, far away from it!