Reviews and More

We just love gadgets in this family, and usually try to purchase the latest tech toys like MP3 players, video game systems, smartphones, and more. Basically, if we see something cool in a store or on a website, chances are we’ll buy it before long!

That’s why I’m positive we’ll be getting a digital photo frame soon. We’ve been checking these products out for a while now, and are convinced that we need several for our home and offices.

We’re fascinated by the way the frames scroll through all the images on your SD memory card, giving each photo its moment in the limelight. What a wonderful way to create an instant slideshow of our latest vacation, birthday party, or holiday gathering — so much better than the old method of having to choose a single image to print out and frame!

Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of research into digital photo frames, and found some great information over at DigitalFramesDirect.com, the official homepage of the largest digital frame wholesaler in the UK. That website contains helpful articles and video reviews that highlight the features I should look for when shopping for one of these gadgets. In addition, the site provides a very handy product comparison chart so I can see at a glance what my digital photo frame can do right out of the box.

I’ve narrowed my choices down to two finalists, and will go over the specs of each digital photo frame with my husband before actually making a purchase. I’m very excited about finally getting one of these for the house!

Don’t forget that digital photo frames make excellent holiday and corporate gifts as well, so be sure to check them out the next time you’re called upon to buy a present for a friend, relative, or business associate.

When I was at the video store the other day, I saw pictures of Richard Gere and Terrence Howard on the cover of a film called The Hunting Party. This struck me as odd, because I’d never even heard of the movie before — unusual given the fact that Gere and Howard are pretty big stars. Although I had a feeling that the only reason I’d never heard of it was because it must have been a box office bomb, I decided to rent it anyway. The description on the back of the box sounded interesting enough, so I figured it couldn’t be too bad.

Well, it turns out I was right on both counts. The Hunting Party was a tremendous flop, earning less than $1 million in the U.S. At the same time, however, it wasn’t a terrible movie, so I wasn’t too disappointed.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Gere stars as Simon Hunt, a once-respected journalist known for getting right in the middle of the action in war zones around the world. However, an on-air meltdown while covering the Bosnian conflict cost Hunt his job and left him doing freelance work for the least prestigious news outlets around.

One day, as a group of journalists converge in Bosnia to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the end of the war, Simon approaches his former cameraman Duck (played by Howard). Duck now has a cushy job in New York doing camera work for Franklin Harris (James Brolin), a hot girlfriend in Greece, and everything else he could possibly want. But Simon guesses that Duck misses the action of his old life, which is why he thinks Duck would be interested in his current proposition.

Simon wants to go after “The Fox” (Ljubomir Kerekes), the most notorious war criminal to emerge from the conflict. There’s a $5 million bounty on the Fox’s head, and Simon intends to collect the loot. Duck thinks this is just another one of Simon’s flights of fancy that he’ll forget about in three days. After all, the CIA, the UN, and several other intelligence agencies have been on the Fox’s trail for years. If these super spies can’t track him down, what makes Simon think that he can?

But Simon won’t relent. He says he has a contact and some solid leads, so Duck finally agrees to go with him. They bring along a third journalist Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg), who happens to be the son of the news agency that Simon used to work for.

The rest of the film then follows Simon, Duck, and Benjamin as they drive through Bosnia looking for The Fox. They get into several close calls along the way, and have their lives threatened quite a few times, but manage to survive. They also turn up some circumstantial evidence showing that perhaps the CIA, UN, et al. aren’t looking for The Fox as diligently as they claim, so the journalists decide to take matters into their own hands.

My Reaction: I thought The Hunting Party had the potential to be a pretty good film. I liked the idea of a group of journalists going out to try to capture a war criminal by using an interview as a ruse, and would have liked to see that kind of scene somewhere in the picture. But obviously that didn’t happen.

I’ve been trying to figure out why this movie bombed so badly, and one of the reasons I came up with is the fact that it seemed to have the wrong tone. I mean, here are these guys looking for a war criminal who has committed all kinds of atrocious acts, and yet the movie plays more like a comedy than an action flick. I don’t mean that it’s full of slapstick or anything like that, but the treatment just felt too lighthearted for the subject matter.

In addition, there was way too much exposition and narrative, especially at the beginning. I was watching the timer on my DVD player, and Duck’s opening voiceover took up eight whole minutes. That’s a long-ass time to listen to one character give out background information about another character — and it was boring as hell.

I won’t go into the political implications of the film because that’s not really my thing, but some people might enjoy that aspect of it.

On the whole, The Hunting Party wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a complete waste of time either. I give it 4.5 stars out of 10.

I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy ever since the first season, and one of my favorite characters on the show is Dr. Izzie Stevens, played by actress Katherine Heigl. Izzie was especially fun during Season 1 and most of Season 2, and now that the character is going back to her old, familiar ways, I find myself liking her more and more.

Of course, a big part of Izzie’s background is that she used to be a model, and Katherine Heigl definitely has the looks to pass for one. Even though she just wears scrubs most of the time, she still manages to look gorgeous — which is quite a feat. And now Heigl is giving fans and health care professionals an alternative to the usual dickies scrubs that they wear by offering her very own line of scrubs.

Katherine Heigl’s scrubs are available exclusively through Scrubs & Beyond, either at their official website or at store locations throughout the country. The Katherine Heigl collection features several different designs and color combinations, so you can buy a bunch of them and have a new set to wear every day of the week. That would sure beat going to work in the same cherokee medical scrubs that everyone else has!

I you’re not interested in the Katherine Heigl collection and would like to go with Barco metro scrubs or a different brand instead, I know you’ll love the vast selection that Scrubs & Beyond has to offer. In addition to scrubs from top manufacturers including Peaches and Landau, they also carry lab coats, jackets, nursing shoes, bags, and stethoscopes, making it easy to get all of your supplies in one place. Moreover, Scrubs & Beyond offers lower prices than you’ll find just about anywhere else, so check out the site today!