Reviews and More

One question I’m frequently asked is how I choose all the movies I review for this blog. I guess some people are surprised at how many films I watch in a given week, so they want to know how I pick them out. Are they recommendations from other people? Are my choices based on awards or actors? Do I have specific criteria when choosing films to watch?

Well, the short answer to all of these questions is, “No.” I usually just go to one of the video stores in my area and pick three or four films off the shelf. Sometimes I read the back of the box to find out what the movie is about; often I don’t. I figure that as long as I haven’t seen it before, it’s fair game.

Obviously this approach has its pros and cons. On the one hand, I sometimes end up discovering great movies that I might not have otherwise seen. On the other, I sometimes pick out horrible films that do nothing more than waste two hours of my life. The 2006 film 10th & Wolf was somewhere in between these extremes.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): James Marsden stars as Tommy, a young man from the 10th & Wolf neighborhood of South Philly who spends all of his free time hanging out with younger brother Vincent (played by Brad Renfro) and cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi).

There’s a heavy mafia presence in the area, but Tommy is determined that neither he nor Vincent should get involved. Joey is a different story, however, as his father was reportedly gunned down by a mob hitman. Joey then makes a revenge hit, and is immediately drawn into mob life.

Tommy, meanwhile, decides to join the Marines to get out of the area. It doesn’t suit him, though, and he ends up getting drunk, punching out a superior officer, and stealing a jeep in Kuwait. Facing a court martial upon his return to the States, Tommy is approached by two FBI agents, Horvath (Brian Dennehy) and Thornton (Leo Rossi) with a deal: if Tommy wears a wire around his cousin Joey and helps lead the agents to a high-ranking mob boss, they’ll let Tommy off scot-free.

The rest of the film then shows how Tommy struggles with the decision of whether or not to betray Joey to save his own skin — and Vincent’s. He inevitably gets drawn deeper and deeper into Joey’s world, and ends up facing some tragic consequences.

My Reaction: I recently finished watching another lightweight mob movie (Brooklyn Rules), so I guess it should come as no surprise that I didn’t like this one either. 10th & Wolf was similar to BR in many respects, and none of them were good.

As with Scott Caan in BR, I just couldn’t buy Giovanni Ribisi as some badass gangster wannabe in this film. He doesn’t have the look, build, or mannerisms to pull off that kind of character, so I had a hard time trying not to laugh whenever he was on the screen.

Also, I found the Vincent character to be annoyingly inconsistent. In some scenes Tommy and Joey just refer to him as dumb or slow, mostly because Vincent didn’t finish 8th grade. But in other scenes, Brad Renfro plays the character as a person suffering from autism, what with the rocking and hand-wringing and everything. It was hard to figure out what exactly was going on with that character, and it was highly distracting.

James Marsden was ok as Tommy, which helped make the film a bit more tolerable. As Tommy was in almost every scene, the movie had the potential to be god-awful if Marsden played the character in a grating way.

As for the storyline — well, there’s not really much I can say about it. It was typical of the genre, held no surprises whatsoever, and had a fair amount of bloodshed. There were a couple of over-the-top characters as well, including Murtha (what was that all about?) and the dumb-as-rocks Jimmy Tattoo (Tommy Lee).

As a whole, I thought 10th & Wolf was a boring film that did nothing to distinguish itself in the gangster genre. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10, and advise you to skip it.

The blackjack card-counting drama 21 scored big with viewers this weekend, earning a solid $23.7 million en route to dethroning previous two-time box office champ Horton Hears a Who. 21, which stars Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Jim Sturgess, is loosely based on the true story of six MIT students who took on the Vegas casinos armed with a complex card-counting system — and walked away with millions. This is the only current release that I want to see right now.

Horton Hears a Who slipped to second place with a $17.4 million haul, bringing its three-week total to an amazing $117 million. With both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell on board, that film could hardly lose.

Superhero Movie, a comedic sendup of, well, superhero movies, did well in its debut with a $9.5 million take. The week’s other new entry, war drama Stop-Loss, also placed in the top 10. Starring Ryan Phillippe and Timothy Olyphant, the film earned $4.5 million — good enough for eighth place.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for 3/30/08:

1. 21, $23.7 million
2. Horton Hears a Who, $17.4 million
3. Superhero Movie, $9.5 million
4. Meet the Browns, $7.7 million
5. Drillbit Taylor, $5.8 million
6. Shutter, $5.3 million
7. 10,000 B.C., $4.8 million
8. Stop-Loss, $4.5 million
9. College Road Trip, $3.5 million
10. The Bank Job, $2.8 million

I admit to reading tabloids and celebrity-centered websites every once in a while, but unlike most people I’m not all that interested in the gossipy stuff like who’s dating whom, who’s pregnant, who’s cheating, or who’s getting a divorce. Instead, I like checking out candid photos of movie and television stars engaging in everyday activities like grabbing a burger or walking their dogs. I know, I know — it’s because of people like me that paparazzi hound these celebs all the time, right? Oh, well!

Anyway, I recently saw a couple of photos of Jake Gyllenhaal and Adam Brody, two of my favorite actors these days, out with their pet pooches. This is almost enough to make me want to move to LA on the off chance of running into one of these guys. Can you imagine how wild it would be to go to the vet or to the store for dog supplies only to end up seeing a movie star doing the same thing?

I first read Anita Shreve five years ago after a friend gave me Fortune’s Rocks while I was laid up in the hospital for a few days. I couldn’t put that book down, and though I haven’t actively sought out Shreve titles since then, I do read her from time to time. I have liked Shreve’s work more often than not, so when I recently saw the audiobook version of her 2007 novel Body Surfing available at my local library, I checked it out without even thinking twice.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The New Hampshire beach house that served as the setting of Fortune’s Rocks and several other Shreve titles is the backdrop for Body Surfing as well. This time, the house is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, a wealthy couple from Boston who like to spend their summers at the beach with their grown children, including the beautiful 18-year-old Julie. The main character of the novel, however, is 29-year-old Sydney Sklar, Julie’s SAT tutor.

Sydney comes with an interesting past, having been divorced and widowed before age 30. She has taken a real liking to the simple, innocent Julie, but also knows that Julie is destined to disappoint Mrs. Edwards since there’s no way the girl will be able to get into one of the top colleges that the mother has her heart set on. Julie has some kind of learning disability that the Edwards family is inexplicably reluctant to acknowledge, so Sydney feels her work with the girl is just going to waste.

The main plot starts to take shape after the family’s two grown sons Jeff and Ben arrive to spend their vacation time at the beach house. On the very first night of their arrival, Jeff, Ben, and Sydney venture out to the ocean for a moonlit body surfing session.

While under water, Sydney distinctly feels one of the brothers brazenly run his hand up and down her body. She’s shocked, but doesn’t come out and say anything. Instead, she resurfaces and notices that Ben is close to her, while Jeff appears to be some distance away down the shore. Sydney assumes that it must have been Ben that touched her like that. She is instantly revolted, and from that point forward wants nothing at all to do with Ben.

The complete opposite is true with Jeff, though, as Sydney and Jeff slowly fall for each other, with Jeff breaking off his engagement to another woman in order to be with Sydney.

The rest of the novel then deals with various problems that arise as a result of the Sydney-Jeff coupling, not the least of which is a nearly complete break between the brothers that affects the entire Edwards family. There are several twists along the way, and everything culminates in a big reveal that shows just how wrong Sydney was about several things.

My Reaction: I had a lot of problems with this book, particularly after it became apparent that Sydney was going to end up with one of the brothers. I usually like the way Shreve handles romance and relationships in her novels, but this was definitely an exception. There were so many ridiculous aspects of the Sydney-Jeff pairing that I never bought their relationship for a minute.

First, I thought it was incredibly childish for Sydney to be so revolted by what she thought was a deliberate touch from Ben that she didn’t even confront him about it. I mean, she was so disturbed by the incident that she couldn’t bring herself to accept so much as a beer from the man at a party later on, yet she never said anything to him? No way! She was 29, not 9. I half expected her to run away from Ben screaming, “You have cooties! You have cooties!” at some point. Yes, her reaction was that childish.

I suppose you could make the argument that she didn’t want to jeopardize her job, but that doesn’t hold water. It was a summer tutoring gig, not something Sydney was planning on doing for the rest of her life. If she was so damn uncomfortable and grossed out, surely she could have told Ben off, packed her bags, and left. End of problem. End of story too, which I guess is why Shreve had her main character act like such a 19th-century prude.

Another aspect of the Jeff-Sydney dynamic that I didn’t buy was the way that Ben just let them ride off into the sunset together even though he knew Jeff was simply out to spite him. The fight scene between the two brothers on the night Julie disappeared comes to mind here. At that point, we’re supposed to believe that Ben had fallen hard for Sydney, which is why Jeff swooped in to scoop her up (this was revealed later).

Yet Ben, who knew full well that his brother had a long history of doing such things, never once said a word to protect Sydney, whom he was supposed to care so much about? Again, this was completely implausible. Perhaps if this novel had been set in the Victorian age, it would be easy to believe that people would just bite their tongues and not say anything, but in 2002 (or whenever this was set), that scenario would never play out the way Shreve described it. People confront each other. People announce others’ shortcomings to the world. They don’t keep it all bottled in like that.

Also, I didn’t like the way the book ended, with Sydney cavorting in the ocean with Ben in a scene that recalled the earlier body surfing scene. Although the author didn’t come right out and say so, I felt that there was definitely a hint that Ben and Sydney might end up together (especially with the way Ben was hoping to meet her at Julie’s art show in Montreal). It just didn’t seem logical for Sydney to want to be part of that family in any way, so the ending came off as incredibly contrived.

If there was anything I liked about this novel, it’s the fact that I listened to it in audiobook form. It was read by actress Lolita Davidovich, and I thought she did a wonderful job with the performance. She has one of those calm, comforting voices that are easy to listen to for extended periods, so that was definitely a plus. I also liked the fact that Body Surfing was a short, quick read. At least I didn’t invest too much time in it!

Overall, Body Surfing is not one of Shreve’s better novels. If you’re looking to get into this author, I suggest starting with something else first. Fortune’s Rocks would be my choice!

I just got done watching the trailer for the new movie 21, and boy am I bummed. I swear, the basic premise is something that a friend and I came up with years ago back when we were in college. We were totally into blackjack back then, practicing and playing every single day. After one extended session at the casino where we won pretty big, we started talking about how cool it would be if we could win our tuition money by counting cards.

We talked about that idea so much that I actually ended up writing a short story with that plot for one of my English classes. This was way back in 1994, so don’t go saying it was a Rounders ripoff or anything like that!

And now here’s 21, about a college student who gets into card-counting so he can come up with tuition money. Damn!

Obviously, there are differences, as my lead character wasn’t at MIT and wasn’t playing as part of a team, but the basic story is the same.

Oh, well, maybe I should have turned my story into a screenplay way back then. If I had, I’d probably be pretty wealthy today, with acres of prime Outer Banks or Wilmington real estate to my name.

At any rate, I definitely plan on seeing 21 in theaters, even though it has been panned by most critics. Hopefully I won’t get too depressed about what might have been!

I had my reservations about watching Into the Wild from the very first time I saw a preview for the film before its theatrical release. I usually don’t like main characters who are dubbed as “free spirits”, nor do I like the whole concept of a character shunning society because he thinks everything sucks. Since the previews indicated that this was the essence of the lead in Into the Wild, I didn’t bother with it.

But then I let the buzz, hype, positive reviews, Academy Award nominations, and the fact that it’s based on a true story get to me. So many people loved this movie that I felt there might be something there after all and finally gave in the last time I was at Blockbuster. I should have just trusted my initial instincts on this one, however, as I started squirming restlessly from the opening scenes almost until the credits rolled — a seemingly interminable 148 minutes later.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Back in 1992, Chris McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch) graduated from Emory College in Georgia full of dreams and ideals. Unlike most 22-year-olds, however, he wasn’t thinking of grad school, a career, or accumulating material possessions. Instead, he wanted to give everything away and wander around for a while, living off the land like his hero Henry David Thoreau.

Towards that end, he donates most of the money he has left over in his college fund ($24,000) to Oxfam International, loads up a his old Datsun, and takes off with nary a word to his parents Walt (William Hurt) and Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) or his sister Carine (Jena Malone). His car gets trashed in a mudslide soon thereafter, and from then on Chris walks and hitchhikes to wherever he wants to go.

While on his journey, he decides that his ultimate destination is Alaska, where he wants to spend considerable time living by himself outside the constraints of society. On his way there, he meets countless people who embrace him and his quest, treating him with more kindness than strangers usually bestow on ragged wanderers.

After finally making it to Alaska, Chris finds an abandoned bus meant to be used as a shelter for hunters. There are some supplies in the bus, so Chris moves on in and lives there through the winter. When his food stores run low, he decides to head back to civilization to stock up, but can’t cross a raging river that is much higher and swifter than it was when he first arrived. With a lack of game to hunt, Chris slowly and painfully starves to death.

My Reaction: I actually saw Into the Wild four days ago, but waited to write the review because I feared that my initial reaction was too strong. After giving myself time to think about it, however, I still HATE this movie and regret that I ever wasted this much of my life watching someone throw his away.

Before I get into all the things I disliked about the film, I just want to say that my reaction is based only on the movie that I saw. I didn’t read the book and know nothing about the real Christopher McCandless, so this is simply my reaction to the events as portrayed by director Sean Penn and actor Emile Hirsch.

That being said, I could not stand Hirsch’s performance throughout most of this film. He came across as very smug, self-centered, arrogant, and ignorant, with few redeeming qualities to speak of. I did enjoy some of his scenes with Hal Holbrook (where Hirsch made Chris seem to be a genuinely nice person) but for the most part, I hated watching this guy — to the point where I practically cheered when he got his ass kicked by the railroad inspector.

I simply couldn’t identify with McCandless at all because people like him are nauseatingly self-righteous in real life. Material possessions aren’t cool — unless they’re old and junky. Chris wouldn’t accept a new car, but didn’t mind his old one. Why is that? A material possession is a material possession, right? Big corporations are evil and lead to a corrupt society — but that didn’t stop Chris from working at McDonald’s to make money for his trip to Alaska. Hypocrite.

Another thing I didn’t like about Chris as portrayed in this film is the way Penn took great pains to show how much Chris admired Jack London and Henry David Thoreau. Well, if that was the case, then Chris didn’t really learn much from either of those guys, did he? If he had read London carefully, he would have had far more respect for nature and how brutal the elements can be, and he wouldn’t have gone into Alaska so woefully unprepared.

If he had read HDT carefully, he would have seen that hard work and foresight are required to live off the land. Walden is basically page after page after page of Thoreau hoeing land, taking care of his crops, storing up food for winter, and just working, working, working to make his experiment a success. Sitting around in a “magic bus” watching his food stores run low is not something Thoreau would have done.

You might say that I’m just attacking Chris’s personality here and not really talking about the film. That’s kind of true, but it’s because nothing noteworthy happened in the film!! It was all about this kid who took off basically because he hated his parents (which, BTW, boo friggin’ hoo. Lots of people have rough childhoods, but they don’t run off to Alaska on a suicide mission). There was no action, no conflict… nothing else to talk about.

I guess I could mention something about Penn here, since those who enjoyed the film inevitably talk about how beautiful it looked. Yes, some of the wilderness shots were nice, but I thought Penn was rather heavy-handed throughout. I mean, how many times did we need to see Chris making new notches in his belt? He’s losing weight because he’s not eating enough — we get it!

Chris’s slow death was excruciating to watch because nobody deserves to die all alone like that, not even someone who brought it on himself through sheer stupidity. He didn’t prove anything. He didn’t make a profound statement. His death was completely unnecessary, and I feel sorry for the family he left behind. Alexander Supertramp? How about Alexander Stupidtramp.

Overall, I couldn’t stand Into the Wild and give it 3.0 stars out of 10. I’m not sure why people are so in love with this film, but if I were you, I’d take the positive reviews with a grain of salt.

I’m one of those people who has the radio on all the time. When I’m blogging or doing other online tasks, I have my favorite stations on at low volume to serve as background noise. When I’m doing housework or cooking dinner, I crank the tunes up and rock out!

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot about how much better HD digital radio is than typical analog broadcasts, so I finally looked into what would be required for an upgrade. It turns out that all I need to do is purchase an HD Radio Receiver, and then find out which local radio stations are broadcasting digitally. From there, I can enjoy the unparalleled sounds of HD radio for free, with no monthly subscription fees required.

Since I know nothing about HD radio receivers, I started reading through some information over at HDRadio.com. I found out that many low- to mid-range units are actually quite affordable, and still come with great features such as an iPod dock with iTunes Tagging. I would definitely want this tagging capability because it would allow me to instantly save a song’s information to my iPod, making it easier for me to locate and buy the song the next time I use iTunes.

Finding local radio stations that broadcast in high-def is a breeze, thanks to HDRadio.com. They have a comprehensive list for every state, so whether you’re looking for Seattle, Chicago, or New York High Definition Radio stations, you’ll have a bunch of options to choose from.

I’m sold on this whole idea of upgrading my radios, so I’m going to get an HD receiver for my home. I can’t wait!

In one telling scene of the critically-acclaimed 2007 Ridley Scott film American Gangster, a high-ranking mobster tells drug kingpin Frank Lucas, “We can be successful and have enemies, or we can be unsuccessful and have friends.” This bit of wisdom comes after Lucas has been complaining about the way he feels other New York drug dealers are disrespecting him, and is a very accurate pronouncement about Frank’s situation.

Lucas has plenty of enemies out there, including Ritchie Roberts, a crusading detective from the Newark PD. Roberts and his handpicked band of officers are closing in on Lucas fast, and it’s just a matter of time before they bring Lucas’ empire down.

Scott’s film could easily have gone down a predictable Hollywood path and ended in a violent shootout — as it might have done had it been written by Oliver Stone (think Scarface). But American Gangster is based on a true story, so the ending is actually a lot tamer and more believable.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): In 1968, the big man in Harlem was gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (played by Clarence Williams III). Everyone respected Bumpy, and business (primarily drug dealing) was run in an orderly fashion. But when Bumpy dies suddenly of a heart attack, the ensuing power vacuum gives rise to a bunch of wannabes, and near-chaos ensues.

That’s when Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), Bumpy’s former driver, sees an opportunity. Lucas gets the brilliant idea of starting up a whole new drug distribution ring, one in which the middleman is completely eliminated. Frank will get his drugs directly from the supplier — in this case, an army general in Thailand. Frank’s cousin, who is in the U.S. Army, will see to it that the drugs get smuggled into America inside the coffins of dead soldiers being shipped back from Vietnam.

The plan works beautifully, and soon Frank is selling what he calls Blue Magic, a very pure form of heroin that he offers for a fraction of the price of his competition. In no time at all, Frank becomes the biggest drug lord in New York, and consequently is targeted by other gangsters and, of course, the police.

Speaking of the police, we also meet Det. Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe) who early in his career earns an Eliot Ness-like reputation for honesty and integrity after turning in a bag containing nearly $1 million in cash that he recovered from a drug dealer’s car. The implication here is that most other cops would have kept it, or skimmed a bit off the top at the very least.

And in another move reminiscent of Ness, Roberts assembles a small group of detectives who he knows can’t be bought. Together, they try to bring down Lucas — and eventually succeed.

My Reaction: Even though I knew going in that American Gangster received mostly rave reviews, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. I thought it would turn out to be a pretentious, overly-preachy marathon that would be torture to sit through — but I was completely wrong. American Gangster was a terrific film that was made enjoyable by the riveting performances of Washington and Crowe.

Denzel Washington was awesome as Frank Lucas: calm and cool on the outside, but ready to explode in an instant if someone dared to cross him. Usually I don’t like graphic violence even in R-rated films, but the two scenes where Lucas went psycho on people (interrupting his breakfast to go shoot one guy in the head and the scene at his party where he started beating the crap out of someone) were absolutely necessary, and served to underscore that despite the well-dressed businesslike exterior, Lucas was a cold-blooded murderer.

I liked Crowe as well, and thought his take on Roberts was very good. Roberts exhibited a genuine earnestness that was believable because it stopped well short of being holier-than-thou. Roberts hated that other cops were on the take, but he didn’t go around preaching against them or trying to show them up. He just went about his business without injecting his brand of morality on anyone else. Perfect.

The film managed to remain interesting throughout, with the only slow spots coming whenever Roberts’ marital problems surfaced. Was any of that stuff even necessary?

Overall, I thought American Gangster was one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. From strong acting to a solid storyline, this definitely is a movie that I could watch again and again. I give it 8.5 stars out of 10.

Last night’s much-hyped episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Ten Sessions”, and featured guest appearances by Britney Spears and Sarah Chalke. I don’t pay attention to promos, but there was so much talk about Britney’s appearance that it was hard not to wonder how it would turn out. I only vaguely remember Sarah Chalke from Roseanne (I don’t watch Scrubs), so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing her or anything like that.

As it turns out, I thought the episode was mostly a dud — until the very end when Ted did the whole two-minute date thing. That was cute, and very much like S1 or S2 Ted, the guy that attracted me to this show in the first place. Other than that though, I was yawning and looking at my watch through most of the ep.

Ted: This episode more or less continues from where 3×11 left off — with Ted getting ready to go out on a date with Stella, the dermatologist he’s seeing for his tramp stamp removal. Now we get the full story, with Stella telling Ted that dating a patient would be against AMA rules and so forth (which is why the “date” turned out to be a group thing), but that doesn’t deter Ted at all. He just tells her he’ll wait until after his 10 sessions are over and then ask her again.

During the next 10 weeks, Ted and Stella get to know each other during their sessions. They flirt a bit, Ted becomes convinced that he absolutely does like her, and then asks her out again when he’s no longer a patient. She puts him off again by saying that she has an 8-year-old daughter and simply doesn’t have time to date. The only free time she has during the day is two minutes during lunch.

That’s when Ted shows up for a two-minute date, complete with cab rides, dinner, movie, coffee, and a good-night kiss.

Barney/Robin/Lily/Marshall: These guys mostly just sat around in the bar offering commentary on whatever was happening with Ted and Stella. Marshall and Barney both went in to see Stella on their own in order to find out if she was into Ted or not. Barney ended up convincing Ted to grow a tiny porn ’stache by saying that Stella loves those things (not true), while Marshall found out that Stella had a crush on Ted.

Also, from a throwaway line, we learned that Barney wanted to hook up with Robin but she said no.

My Reaction: Since Britney’s guest role on this show has been talked about for weeks, you’d think the least she could have done was wash her hair for the occasion. Man, did it look greasy as hell in half of her scenes, or what? Also, she can’t act worth a damn, so fortunately her character wasn’t the focal point of this ep otherwise I would have probably turned it off.

As I said above, I was pretty ‘meh’ on the ep until the two-minute date. The scenes between Stella and Ted weren’t very interesting to me, so I was mostly bored whenever the two of them were on. I thought the group scenes in the bar were a little better, but again, there weren’t many laugh out loud moments there.

And though I think Stella will probably be back for at least a few more episodes, I really don’t think she ends up as Ted’s wife.

I’ve been reading that HIMYM is on the bubble as far as being renewed by CBS. I really hope the writing picks up down the home stretch here, because as uneven as the eps have been this season, I still think this is a quality show overall. Maybe next week’s effort will help prove that.

We’re living in a fairly nice townhouse right now, but my husband and I both agree that this is just our starter home. We dream of being able to afford a single-family home one day, with a fenced-in backyard where our son can play with the dogs, practice baseball, or even camp out under the stars. We’re saving as much as possible every month because we want to purchase our dream home within the next five years or so.

While we’re saving, we love looking through different house plans online to see what kinds of choices are available to us. One of the better sites we’ve found is called HousePlansAndMore.com, where they have tons of beautiful plans to browse through. I love how convenient it is to view plans based on our own criteria, such as estimated cost, square footage, and number of bedrooms. This makes it very easy to isolate plans that fit our needs while ignoring the rest.

I also like being able to view specific styles, and think that their Colonial Home Plans are simply stunning. When we’re ready to build our home, I know this is the style we’re going to choose.

If you’re thinking about building a home in the near future, then I recommend visiting HousePlansAndMore.com for ideas to get you going. Whether you’re looking for elegant Victorian house plans or rustic log home plans, you’ll find everything you need right there on the site. Check it out today!

When I was growing up, I loved reading all the children’s mystery series I could get my hands on. This included The Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown, The Hardy Boys, and of course Nancy Drew. The Nancy Drew books were by far my favorites, so when I heard that director Andrew Fleming was set to present us with a modern version of Nancy in a brand-new film, I decided I would see it. I didn’t catch Nancy Drew in theaters, but was able to rent the DVD a few days ago.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with a few scenes that establish Nancy Drew (played by Emma Roberts) as an amateur detective who is good enough at what she does to actually apprehend criminals. However, her father Carson (Tate Donovan) doesn’t approve of Nancy’s “sleuthing” because he thinks it’s too dangerous. He makes Nancy promise to give up all detective work for good, which she reluctantly agrees to.

The Drews are preparing to move to Los Angeles so Carson can take care of some business. As a conciliatory gesture for making Nancy drop her favorite hobby, Carsoon lets Nancy handle the housing arrangements and pick out the house they will live in.

Nancy takes advantage of this opportunity by selecting a home that once belonged to Dehlia Draycott, an old-time Hollywood movie star whose murder remains unsolved. It’s said that Dehlia’s ghost haunts the house, which is why Nancy was attracted to it. Carson doesn’t know about the mystery attached to the old home, so he doesn’t ask any questions before moving in.

Nancy soon starts poking around the house, and discovers an old letter that Dehlia wrote to an unidentified recipient. The letter talks about a daughter Dehlia gave up for adoption and her will, which prompts Nancy to investigate even further. She eventually tracks down Dehlia’s daughter Jane (Rachel Leigh Cook), and then sets about looking for the lost will.

The rest of the film then deals with Nancy’s quest to find Dehlia’s will and uncover the murderer. Everyone knows that in detective movies, the main sleuth always wins in the end, and that’s precisely what happens here.

My Reaction: I sat down to watch this film expecting nothing more than some lighthearted entertainment, and that’s pretty much what I got. The mystery wasn’t all that intriguing, and there wasn’t as much of a sense of impending danger as audiences usually get with these types of films, so I wasn’t too involved with the story.

Nevertheless, I thought Emma Roberts (Julia Roberts’ niece) did a very good job as Nancy. I’m so glad the director didn’t turn her into some hip, trendy, it-girl detective because that would have been wrong on so many levels. I liked that Nancy stuck to her conservative wardrobe (with penny loafers) and that other characters noticed (and commented) on the look.

I think this film would appeal to young girls (perhaps some boys, too) and would definitely buy it for family members who fit that demographic.

Overall, I give Nancy Drew 5.5 stars out of 10. It’s certainly not Oscar material, but it’s a good, clean movie that’s suitable for family viewing — a rare find these days.

Family-filled crowds on this Easter weekend helped keep the G-rated Blue Sky Studios film Horton Hears a Who! at the top of the box office charts. The Dr. Seuss adaptation featuring the voice talents of Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell among others earned a healthy $25.1 million, bringing its 10-day total up to $86.5 million and ensuring that the film will be another hit from the studio that brought audiences such titles as Ice Age and Robots.

Second place with $20 million in ticket sales went to newcomer Meet the Browns, a comedy starring Tyler Perry and Angela Bassett. Two more new releases debuted in the top five, with horror flick Shutter raking in $10.7 million and family comedy Drillbit Taylor earning $10.2 million.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not particularly interested in seeing any of the films in the current top 10. My son wants to see Horton Hears a Who!, so we might end up going to a matinee show this week, but other than that, I’m perfectly content to wait for the DVDs.

At any rate, here’s the complete Top 10 for 3/23/98:

1. Horton Hears a Who!, $25.1 million
2. Meet the Browns, $20 million
3. Shutter, $10.7 million
4. Drillbit Taylor, $10.2 million
5. 10,000 B.C., $8.66 million
6. Never Back Down, $4.86 million
7. College Road Trip, $4.63 million
8. The Bank Job, $4.1 million
9. Vantage Point, $3.8 million
10. Onaji Tsuki Wo Miteiru, $2.6 million

When I was younger, I used to scour the cable guide to find out when Alfred Hitchcock Presents would be on. They usually aired well after my bedtime, so I’d ask my parents to set up the VCR for me, and then I’d eagerly watch them the next day.

I haven’t seen any of those shows in over 15 years, and am now thinking about buying a few of the box sets on DVD. The only problem is, I don’t know if the DVDs would be worth the price or not. Sometimes shows that I really enjoyed as a kid simply don’t have the same replay value now that I’m an adult, so I don’t want to end up wasting money here.

A few of the eps were outstanding, like the one where a woman murdered her husband with a frozen lamb chop, and then had it roasting in the oven by the time the police came to investigate. She served them dinner, thereby effectively disposing of the murder weapon.

However, there were a bunch of run-of-the-mill eps as well, where people killed their spouses in order to collect on large term life insurance policies or just out of sheer jealousy. I can see those kinds of plots on TV any old time, so why buy these DVDs?

Well, I think I’m going to put this purchase off for a while. There are a few other DVD box sets that I’m more confident about buying (House, M*A*S*H), so Hitch will have to wait for now!

As a fan of the FOX television show Bones, I decided that it would be fun to try reading one of the books that the series is based on. Before going in, I knew that the original Temperance Brennan in Kathy Reichs’ novels is vastly different from the Emily Deschanel portrayal on TV, and that the Booth character doesn’t appear at all. Moreover, I knew that the setting of the novels was not Washington, D.C., nor does Temperance assist the FBI with their investigations.

I was fine with these differences because I figured that the basic storylines and characters would have to be pretty special for a television network to take interest in the first place, so while I would certainly miss the flirty Bones-Booth banter, I was hoping that I’d at least be treated to an interesting mystery in Déjà Dead. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Dr. Temperance Brennan is an American forensic anthropologist from North Carolina who has decided to spend some time working in Montreal. She is recently divorced, has a 19-year-old daughter in college, and thought that a change of scenery would be just what she needed.

We soon see that Temperance doesn’t really fit in with her co-workers, who are mostly chauvinistic males. They don’t listen to her ideas and they treat her with barely veiled contempt, which made me wonder why she even bothered to work there in the first place.

Things on the professional front heat up when two bodies are discovered hidden in the woods. The victims were both women, were both tortured in a similarly gruesome fashion, and were both dismembered postmortem. After examining the forensic evidence and comparing it to past unsolved cases, Brennan becomes convinced that they’re looking for a serial killer. Her higher-ups, however, disagree.

So Brennan takes it upon herself to pursue the serial killer angle. She ends up in several dangerous situations, and eventually discovers that she herself is on the killer’s list of targets.

The rest of the novel then deals with how Brennan tries to uncover the killer’s identity, flush him out in the open, and bring him to justice.

My Reaction: First of all, I have to say that even though I was prepared for the novel to be different from the TV series, I didn’t realize just how different everything would be. I mean, the only common denominator between the two is the name of the main character, Temperance Brennan. Other than that, there’s absolutely no indication that the show and the book are even related. So that was a bit of an eye-opener.

Another surprise was how boring this book was. I’d heard a lot of good things about Déjà Dead from mystery readers on different forums and so forth, which made me look forward to reading this. But it was pretty boring right from the start — and I think the biggest reason for this was Reichs’ writing style.

Reichs uses so many similes and metaphors throughout the book that it became too much of a distraction. Sure, some description is necessary, and similes and metaphors can help make for some memorable passages. But Reichs completely overdid it here. Frankly, I’m surprised that her editor didn’t make her eliminate half of this crap. It would have saved a lot of unnecessary pages, that’s for sure.

Moreover, Reichs spent way too much time describing every minute thing that Brennan did during her day. I mean, if Brennan was just packing a bag to go on a stakeout, Reichs felt that warranted several paragraphs worth of descriptions, from unzipping the bag to picking out clothing and equipment to zipping the bag again, slinging it over her shoulder, and finally walking out to her car. Seriously, half of the descriptions in the book were completely unnecessary. Five pages about different types of saws? Really?

And finally, I didn’t like this book because there was hardly any focus on forensic anthropology. This was basically a run-of-the-mill mystery, and Brennan’s profession had nothing to do with her ability to solve the case. At least on the TV show, the clues and evidence gathered from forensic analysis of the bones actually plays a role in catching the killer.

Overall, I thought Déjà Dead was a poorly written novel with an uninteresting plot, unlikable protagonist, and incredibly uneven pacing. It took me several weeks to get through it, and now that I’ve finished, I just wish I would have given up after the first few chapters. It was not worth my time at all.

Although our home is just eight years old, the amount of wear and tear we’ve dished out makes the interior appear twice that age. I guess that’s what happens when two hyper dogs and an active five-year-old boy have the run of the place! All I can say is that a complete makeover is definitely in order at this point.

That’s why I’m very interested in the new promotion currently being sponsored by Renuzit TriScents. Between now and April 30th, you can enter to win a $20,000 Home Makeover from Renuzit. All you have to do is create a video or submit photos and an essay explaining why you need a home makeover and how the $20,000 from Renuzit TriScents can help you achieve your goals.

There is a two-minute limit on the videos and a 250-word limit on the essays, so you’ll definitely want to keep that in mind as you create your entries. For even more information about the contest, see official rules.

I think it would be simply amazing to win this $20,000 home makeover! There are so many things we’d be able to do with the money, such as refinishing or replacing our scratched-up wood flooring, updating our furniture, and repainting our walls. I have no doubt the house would look as good as new after this kind of makeover!

If you could use a $20,000 makeover for your home, then get out your camcorder or digital camera and enter to win the contest. Make sure you provide a compelling argument for why your home qualifies for the contest and back up your reasons with video or photographic evidence.

Oh, and don’t forget to try out the two new TriScents electric oil freshener varieties available nationwide. You can download and print a coupon on the TriScents site that will allow you to get a Renuzit TriScents Starter Kit from a local retailer.

I definitely need something like this to cover up the seemingly permanent doggy smell at my place, so I’ll be taking advantage of the coupon for sure!

Another brand-new episode of Lost aired last night. This one was called “Kevin Johnson”, and as you might expect from the name, focused on what happened to Michael after he made that deal to free Ben and in exchange for a ticket off the island back in Season 2.

Unfortunately, Michael wasn’t an interesting character when he was a regular on the series, and being away for more than a season and a half didn’t really help enhance his popularity, so I was kind of bored with everything that was going on. Once again, there were few real answers. Just bits and pieces of stuff that had already been guessed at ages ago.

Michael’s flashbacks served to fill Sayid and Desmond in on what he’s been doing since he left the island. Sayid confronted Michael in the engine room of the freighter, demanding to know what was going on. Michael had no choice but to explain, which is why we got his story.

Apparently, Ben was true to his word. Michael and Walt both got off the island and were deposited back in Manhattan. Michael ended up confessing to Walt that he killed Ana Lucia and Libby in cold blood in order to break Ben out of the hatch. Walt becomes terrified of Michael, so he goes to live with his grandmother, refusing to see his father anymore. This distresses Michael to the point where he tries to kill himself several times.

Then Tom, one of the Others, shows up in Manhattan and tells Michael that the island won’t “let” him kill himself, so it would be best if he just continued to serve Ben. With no better prospects ahead of him, Michael agrees to board the Widmore freighter in Fiji — with instructions to kill everyone on the boat in order to save everyone on the island.

When Michael finishes his story, a pissed off Sayid drags him to the captain to reveal him as an imposter.

In island happenings, Ben convinces Alex, Carl, and Rousseau to head off to a distant sanctuary so they’ll be safe from the newcomers who would love to capture Alex and use her as leverage against Ben. The three take off, but are ambushed on their journey. Carl is shot dead, Rousseau is shot in the chest (though we don’t know if she dies or not), and the show ends with Alex surrendering to the unknown assailants.

A few random thoughts:

– What the hell was that whole Tom-is-gay scene about? Did that add anything at all to the story?

– I still don’t understand how there can be unexplored parts of the island. Hasn’t Rousseau been there for 16 years or something? What else would there be to do except wander, wander, and wander some more? I hate how this show keeps bringing up new buildings and crap like that. How friggin’ big is this island supposed to be?

– Sawyer is 1,000 times hotter with washed hair.

– So if Michael and Walt really did get off the island two months ago, then how did “tall Walt” save Locke from the death pit that Ben shoved him into?

– It was a bit freaky seeing Ana Lucia and Libby again. I sometimes forget just how many characters this show has gone through in 3+ years.

– No Jack!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!

I recently posted about how I’ve been watching Criminal Minds on DVD. I’m now halfway through Season 2, and have to say that I still like the show a lot. I’ve found, however, that I can’t really go on marathon viewing sessions with this one, simply because the subject matter is so dark and depressing that I have to take a break every once in a while.

Anyway, here are some updated thoughts through episode 2×16, which was called “Fear and Loathing”.

– I was sort of surprised that Elle was removed from the show so quickly. I didn’t mind that character, but her replacement, Emily Prentiss, annoys me.

– I’m really not looking forward to seeing an addiction story involving Reid. Wasn’t it enough to have Elle go off the deep end and shoot a guy in cold blood? Now we have to have Reid acting like a jittery freak too?

– Why is it that no matter where the BAU crew goes for their investigation, they end up driving the same fleet of black GMC SUVs? Whether they’re in Missouri searching for missing young women in Branson cabins or trying to rescue kidnapping victims in Seattle townhouses, they always have those same vehicles.

– While I still like the tech Penelope, my new favorite character is Aaron Hotchner. Out of all the people on the show, Hotch is the only one who seems like he actually would be an FBI profiler. The rest just seem like… characters on a TV show!

– In reading a few different fan forums devoted to Criminal Minds, I’m amazed at the number of people who love Mandy Patinkin/Jason Gideon. While I think the guy is a decent actor, I don’t feel that he’s the core of the show, as many others do. And as for his character? I can take him or leave him. Sometimes I like him, sometimes he bugs me.

At any rate, the bottom line is that I like Criminal Minds and will definitely keep watching. I just hope the good eps continue to outweigh the bad ones!

There aren’t too many child actors that I like, but Freddie Highmore is definitely one of them. I first noticed Freddie in the 2004 film Finding Neverland where he played the boy who inspired J.M. Barrie to write Peter Pan. I thought Highmore was brilliant in that movie, so I began following his career more closely and now try to see as many of his films as possible.

That was my motivation behind renting August Rush a few days ago, and is the reason that The Golden Compass and The Spiderwick Chronicles are both on my “To Watch” list. As for August Rush, Highmore came through with a great performance once again. I have a feeling he’s going to be a huge star someday!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with intercut scenes of two very different musicians. Louis Connelly (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer of a rock band, while Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a Juilliard-trained concert cellist with a bright future. The two run into each other on a rooftop in New York City, feel a mutual connection, and then sleep together. Thought they plan to meet again the next day, Lyla’s domineering father (William Sadler) forbids it.

A baby resulted from that one-night stand, but thanks to a car accident, he was given up for adoption without Lyla’s knowledge or consent. We meet the boy, called Evan Taylor (Highmore), who has been “in the system” in NYC for all 11 years of his life. Though he has no idea who his parents are, he has no doubt that they will come to find him sometime soon. Because of this belief, he doesn’t want to be placed with a foster family — just in case his parents show up at the orphanage.

However, when a social worker named Richard Jeffries (played by Terrence Howard) reviews Evan’s case, he tries to convince the boy that having a family would be a good thing. Evan gets scared, so he runs away from the orphanage and ends up becoming friends with Arthur (Leon G. Thomas III), a street musician who plays guitar in one of the city’s parks for pocket change.

Arthur takes Evan back to his “home”, which is actually an abandoned opera house that he shares with a bunch of other street kids. Their leader is a man named Wizard (Robin Williams) who sort of looks after the boys, but mostly makes sure he gets more than his fair share of their earnings.

Evan starts playing a guitar, and it becomes apparent that he is a music prodigy. Wizard immediately sees big dollar signs in his future, so he sets out trying to find gigs for Evan — whom he promptly renames August Rush.

The rest of the film then shows how August develops his musical talent, gets discovered by Juilliard, and eventually comes to conduct his own composition in Central Park, drawing both Lyla and Louis to hm, just as he knew he would.

My Reaction: Well, you can probably tell from my summary that August Rush certainly isn’t the type of movie that will appeal to a broad audience. It is very sappy and sentimental, with completely ludicrous coincidences that allow the plot to play out just so. That being said, there’s a time and a place for films like this, so I didn’t mind the overload of sugary sweetness that much.

I’m not saying that this was a great movie, because it certainly wasn’t. But it’s a nice family film that parents can enjoy with their children instead of watching the latest Pixar animation for the 100th time.

Do I even need to go into how implausible nearly ever element of the plot was? Um, like Juilliard would admit an underage kid without doing a background check? And please don’t tell me they couldn’t find any information on “August Rush” (fake name), so they just gave up and let him in. Oh, and how convenient was it that both Louis and Lyla remained unmarried and pining for each other for 11 years — and then upon meeting in a crowd of thousands in Central Park, they had absolutely nothing to say, no looks of shock, but just held each other’s hand? Puhleeze!!

But despite the utterly contrived and implausible plot, I still liked August Rush. I’m telling you, there’s just something about Freddie Highmore that draws me in to every film he does. He’s so earnest and sincere as August (without being obnoxious or cloying) that I couldn’t help but like him and pull for him to find his parents.

Obviously, the overall rating for August Rush has to suffer because of the dumb coincidences that keep cropping up in the plot. I would ordinarily have given this film 4.5 stars based on what I saw, but I’m bumping it up to 5.5 because of Highmore’s performance. This film is worth watching; however, you definitely have to be in the mood for something highly sentimental in order to enjoy it!

For every superstar pro football player who makes it to NFL and pulls down multi-million dollar salaries for years, there are countless third-string journeymen who knock about the league accepting short-term contracts with any team that will have them. These are the guys who were top athletes in high school, and just good enough in college that pro teams decided to give them a look. Though they know they’ll never have a Hall of Fame career, they’re not quite willing to give up the dream yet.

Rick Dockery, the protagonist in John Grisham’s 2007 novel Playing for Pizza, is just this sort of man. His unwillingness to admit defeat after being ignominiously run out of the NFL lands him in Italy playing football for pizza, beer, and a tiny salary. Dockery’s time in Parma, and the realizations he makes about himself serve as the basic plot of Playing for Pizza.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Up by 17 points with 11 minutes left to play in the AFC Championship game, the Cleveland Browns are forced to turn the game over to third-string quarterback Rick Dockery for what should be little more than mop-up duty after both their first- and second-stringers were knocked out with injuries.

However, Dockery proceeded to throw three interceptions during those 11 minutes, including one that was returned for the game-winning touchdown. Never mind that Dockery was hit hard enough on that play to land him in the hospital for three days with a concussion. The monumental collapse made Dockery a marked man with the Cleveland fans, earned him the position of Biggest Goat in sports history on a columnist’s list, and turned the 28-year-old into the league pariah. The Browns released Dockery from his contract almost immediately, and no GM would return his agent Arnie’s calls.

Then one day, Arnie offers Rick the only gig he could find: a five-month contract worth 2,000 Euros per month to play for the Parma Panthers in the Italian football league. Rick has never heard of Parma, much less the Panthers, so he at first resists the offer. But when it becomes perfectly clear that the NFL isn’t going to be an option anymore, he accepts.

From there, the plot takes on a predictable aspect as Grisham combines the typical elements of classic fish-out-of-water scenarios with the expected scenes of an underdog sports team that overcomes the odds to win the big game. On the one hand, Rick encounters problems with the language, life, and culture of Parma as he learns to adjust to his new situation. On the other hand, Rick deals with misfit teammates, tries to shake off lingering demons from his NFL career, and ultimately becomes the on-field leader he has always dreamed of being.

My Reaction: This didn’t feel like a John Grisham book at all. I’m not saying that just because it’s not one of his typical legal thrillers; I can understand why he’d want to branch out every once in a while. What I mean is that there wasn’t anything distinctive about the plot or characters that made me want to keep turning the pages. It’s like Grisham outlined the story and then handed the actual composition tasks over to a ghostwriter or something. It was all very anonymous and very bland.

For one thing, the plot itself was highly predictable. There are just so many different ways a sports story can play out, you know? Grisham did the expected thing here, by making Rick come into Parma with heightened expectations surrounding him (a “real” NFL quarterback), having the team go on a losing streak as they face bigger and bigger obstacles, and then finally having them pull together to win games, turn their season around, make it into the playoffs, and win the championship.

Seriously, that plot could have been written by any student in a college writing course.

The non-football aspects of the novel weren’t much better. At first, when Rick was attending operas and starting to hit on that soprano, I was worried that this subplot would develop with Nicholas Sparks-like syrupy sweetness. Fortunately, and somewhat surprisingly, Grisham went in a different direction and gave Rick an American girl to fall for.

Overall, I thought Playing for Pizza was a subpar effort from John Grisham. He has built his reputation on writing tightly plotted books with great action and a number of twists and turns along the way. But Playing for Pizza had neither a strong plot nor strong characters, and was a big letdown in the end. The best thing I can say about the book was that it was short and made for a quick read.

When my husband went on a business trip to Texas last year, his associates took him to a professional rodeo in Mesquite. Jerry had never been to a rodeo before, and was at first a bit skeptical about how the event would turn out. But he ended up having an absolute blast there, so now he’s trying to convince me to go with him next time.

After checking around for more information, I agreed — but on one condition: that we attend the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

There are a couple of reasons that I’m choosing the NFR over other competitions. First of all, it’s the premier rodeo event in the country, routinely drawing around 170,000 fans during its 10-day run. Plus, all of the top cowboys and cowgirls show up to compete in the NFR, since there are eight world championship titles at stake in addition to a boatload of prize money.

The second reason I want to attend the NFR is that it’s in Vegas! I’ve never been to Vegas before, but have been dying to go ever since I played my first hand of blackjack on an Indian reservation casino 15 years ago. If we go to the NFR, we’d be killing two birds with one stone. Perfect!

Anyway, I know that National Finals Rodeo tickets are hard to come by, but since the event isn’t until December, I’m hoping we have a shot at getting good seats. If we’re able to pull this vacation off, I’m sure we’ll have an amazing time!