Reviews and More

Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy was called “Life During Wartime” and served to officially introduce the new character, Maj. Owen Hunt, to the staff of Seattle Grace Hospital. Owen enters as the trauma resident, since he has so much experience on the battlefield. Other storylines progressed a bit as well, and I was pretty satisfied with this ep overall.

Meredith/Derek: They had surprisingly few scenes together and seemed to be getting along whenever they were in the same room. What is this, like two eps in a row without some stupid fight? This must be a record! Meredith lugged an “Anatomy Jane” doll all over the place, which earned her a spot on Bailey’s surgery team as well as a guilty outpouring from Chief Webber who I guess feels partially responsible for Mer’s lost childhood.

Alex/Izzie: Alex wants Izzie to teach him how to express his feelings. She starts by getting him to admit that he wants their relationship to be exclusive, which he does. So they’re officially a couple now.

Cristina/Owen: Owen runs a “live tissue” lab in which he stabs four anesthetized pigs and has Yang and her interns try to save the animals. Cristina feels this is a complete waste of her time and skills, but Bailey makes her hang in there. Of course, Lexipedia names the pigs, and after spending all day saving them, the doctors — including Yang — become attached. When Owen tells Cristina to pull the plug on the pigs, she can’t do it — until Lexipedia convinces her that it’s for the best.

Erica/Callie/Sloan: Erica starts off the show with some crazy speech about how having sex with Callie is the best thing that ever happened to her. She likens the experience to getting glasses, in that everything is much clearer now that she knows what she’s been missing. She ends her speech by declaring, “I am gay!”

Torres, meanwhile, still goes to Mark for sex because she can’t figure out why she hasn’t had the same epiphany. Maybe she needs to be with men. Mark later convinces her to give Hahn a chance — and to stop sleeping with him since that’s cheating on Erica. Callie agrees, then asks Mark to get a drink with her, as friends. After all, there’s more to him than just sex.

Bailey: Pulled off another amazing surgery and put the smack down on Hahn for being such a negative, condescending bitch all the time.

Lexipedia/George: Lexie was ignoring George at the beginning of the ep, but by the end of her ordeal with the pigs, she was ready to make up. She cooked macaroni and cheese (from the box, not the freezer) as a peace offering, so these two are now back on track.

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good episode, as there were lots of little moments that I enjoyed. For example, Cristina and Meredith running through the halls to avoid Owen right at the beginning was hilarious and had me laughing out loud, and I also loved how Mark and Callie are becoming friends. The part where she asked him out for a drink and he realized that she truly appreciates his friendship was definitely an “Aw” moment.

Izzie and Alex are my favorite couple on the show right now — by far. I hope that by opening up to Izzie, this marks the beginning of the end of Alex’s asshole period. He needs to quit being such a jerk to her and start addressing his real feelings.

Speaking of real feelings, what’s with Grey’s mother’s diaries? Wasn’t she a world-class surgeon who spent 20 hours a day at the hospital? When the hell did she have all that free time to fill up a cardboard box with diaries?

At any rate, there might be hope for this show after all! This is the second good ep in a row in what has been a surprisingly decent season. I can’t wait for next week!

Private Practice 2×04 — “Past Tense”: I’m glad the Sam vs. Naomi office politics stuff has been laid to rest. Honestly, that storyline had become pretty boring after being dragged out for several eps. I think it’s interesting that Addison was chosen to run the practice, and am hoping that this leads to some good storylines.

After seeing Addie with SWAT guy again, I’m more convinced than ever that they make a totally bland couple. As shallow as it sounds, it’s because SWAT guy is simply not attractive enough for Kate Walsh. Seriously, he’s scrawny as hell and his permanent stubble isn’t sexy, it just makes his face look dirty. Ewww! How Addie can go from Mark Sloan to this guy is beyond me!

I thought the revelations about Pete’s past were intriguing. He’s such a dull character that it’s hard for me to imagine him as a Doctors Without Borders kind of guy, but I’ll take his ex-girlfriend’s word for it. Why he would give up that sort of important work to perform Eastern medicine rituals for rich Orange County patients is a question I’d like answered!

House 5×06 — “Joy”: Ok, what is up with House (the character)? He has become even more of an asshole than ever, and it’s just hard for me to like him at all these days. In earlier seasons, his caustic comments and childish behavior were balanced by his genius, but beginning in S4 and continuing through this season, his redemptive qualities are quickly diminishing. Why Wilson or Cuddy choose to socialize with him outside of work is a mystery.

Even though I knew Cuddy wouldn’t end up getting the baby, I thought Lisa Edelstein did a fine acting job in this ep. She was able to convey so much despair and disappointment that I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. I really hope the writers don’t abandon this motherhood issue, as it adds an extra dimension to her character that I think is much needed.

The House-Cuddy kiss? Well, while I’m not exactly opposed to these two getting together as a couple, I thought the kiss was out of place considering the circumstances. Cuddy was way too vulnerable in that moment for it to mean the same for her as it did for House… I wonder what the fallout from this will be!

Entourage 5×08: “First Class Jerk”: Finally! This episode was exactly what I expect from Entourage!! I loved that Ari was back to his wheeling and dealing self, pulling a fast one over Amanda! I’m not sure that I understand the reasons Ari would turn down a $10 million studio head position, but the fact that he got Dana Gordon in, and the fact that she’s going to go to bat for Vince, was just awesome. Way to go, Ari!

I know that there’s not much viewer love for the Turtle character, but I like how he’s been coming into his own in the past few weeks. First he stood up to Drama about that personal assistant job, and now he scored a ride in first class — and then scored with Meadow Soprano. Although he is annoying sometimes, I feel for him because he’s an outsider in that group of friends. He’s the only one not connected to the industry in any way, and he doesn’t have a job except for whatever menial tasks Vince gives him to do. It must be hard on the ego to be a complete hanger-on like that, so yeah, it’s nice to see him starting to make his own way a little bit.

The local community college has a terrific library with a bunch of wonderful resources available to anyone who lives in the district, and I’ve been taking advantage of this by borrowing audio versions of lectures from The Teaching Company. One of the recent courses I’ve listened to was called “Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition”, and it’s definitely my favorite TTC class thus far.

I listened to the First Edition, which was produced back in the early ’90s. I know that there’s a Second Edition available now that covers the exact same material, but is taught by different professors. I obviously don’t know which is better since I’ve only been exposed to one, but I just thought I should point out that I’m talking about the First Edition here.

“Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition” is a vast course that covers the most influential writers of western literature from the time of Homer and the Bible all the way to more modern writers such as Faulkner, Camus, and Beckett. The class is divided into seven different parts and the lectures, most of which are 45 minutes long, proceed in chronological order, with each lecture devoted to one particular author. These lectures are delivered by a number of different professors, all of whom were deemed “superstar teachers” by The Teaching Company.

I ended up listening to every single lecture in the order that they came up on the CDs, even if I hadn’t yet read the works that the class covered. Some of these were still interesting, but if I could go through the course again, I’d probably skip a number of lectures altogether. I recommend first listening to lectures about authors and works you’re familiar with, and then going back to cover the rest at your leisure. The chronology of the lectures isn’t that important, particularly since you’re just listening for your own personal edification and not to pass a test or something.

There were lots of good lectures in this set, and some of my favorites were the ones covering Blaise Pascal, Moliere, Voltaire, Cervantes, Defoe, Dickens, Goethe, and Faulkner. I think a number of these lectures were delivered by Michael Sugrue, formerly of Princeton and now of Ave Maria University. I thought he was by far the best lecturer, not only for his insights into these authors and their works, but also because of his energy and humor. Plus, his voice was very pleasant to listen to, which I guess sounds superficial, but is an important consideration for courses of this length.

Some of the other lecturers were pretty bland and boring — especially the ones who were obviously reading from a script instead of just speaking naturally. I can appreciate wanting to be prepared for the class and all that, but come on… just sitting there reading an essay that you wrote on the subject is a cop out!

Overall, however, I was quite pleased with the presentation and content of “Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition”. It’s definitely worth a listen, even if you just pick and choose your favorites. If your library has this course, you should absolutely check it out!

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan established long ago for moviegoers that men and women can’t be friends because of “the sex thing”. But nearly 20 years later, screenwriters Adam Sztykiel, Deborah Kaplan, and Harry Elfont found it necessary to revisit that same theme in Made of Honor — with exactly the same results. The two people who thought they were “just friends” end up walking down the aisle before the credits roll. No wonder I had a been there, done that feeling throughout the entire film.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Tom (played by Patrick Dempsey) and Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) meet in college when Tom accidentally gets into Hannah’s bed, mistaking her for her roommate. They share some witty banter before parting ways, and the next thing we know, it’s 10 years later and the two have become best friends. They share everything except a bed, and seem like they would make a great couple.

It’s too bad, then, that Tom is more interested in sleeping with as many women as possible without getting bogged down in commitments or a real relationship. In fact, he has a complicated system of rules that he follows, which include things like no back-to-back dates, and no phone calls within the first 24 hours of getting a woman’s phone number. Hannah mostly rolls her eyes at Tom’s rules, but it’s clear to everyone — except Tom, apparently — that she’s crazy about him.

Hannah never mentions this to Tom, of course, as she doesn’t want to ruin their dynamic. This happens anyway when Hannah is sent on an extended business trip to Scotland on behalf of the Met. As soon as she’s gone and Tom doesn’t have their weekly gatherings or nightly phone calls to look forward to, he realizes that he loves her. He fully plans on revealing his feelings when Hannah gets back, but before he can do so, Hannah announces that she’s engaged to Colin (Kevin McKidd), a wealthy Duke she met on the trip. Tom has no choice but to pretend to be happy for her, and even accepts Hannah’s invitation to be maid of honor at the wedding.

However, Tom is not prepared to let Hannah go without a fight. The rest of the film then shows how Tom works to win Hannah over before she gets married to Colin. As is usual with rom-coms of this ilk, Tom is thwarted through the first two-thirds of the film before finally getting the girl at the end.

My Reaction: Hmm, well, there wasn’t really anything new or original in Made of Honor, so I could pretty much figure out what would happen before each act unfolded. But clearly, the plot wasn’t the point of this film, the characters were. And while I thought Michelle Monaghan was decent as Hannah, I couldn’t stand Patrick Dempsey’s character at all. I admit that this had more to do with the fact that I can’t look at him without seeing Derek Shepherd (his Grey’s Anatomy character), but still… I simply couldn’t get behind him in this one.

In fact, I thought Hannah had far more chemistry with Colin than she did with Tom, and felt those two should have been together. Do you mean to tell me she started having her doubts about Colin just because he refused to let her scoop up his cake with her dirty fork? It’s called table manners, dear. Get some.

But of course, the two leads in a romantic comedy are supposed to end up with each other no matter what, so Made of Honor just follows the old tried and true rules. At least Tom gets decked in the end when he crashes the wedding.

Made of Honor doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but at least it’s watchable and doesn’t have too many extraneous scenes bogging it down. For this reason, I give it 5.0 stars out of 10, though the plot itself is worth fewer stars than that.

Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “Mirror, Mirror” and really helped fill in some of the gaps that are naturally present as the result of the 5-year flash-forward in the main storyline. All of the major characters either changed drastically or went through life-altering events prior to this season’s premiere, so now we’re finally getting to see how and why some of these things happened.

Susan/Mike/Jackson: It turns out that Mike was the one who wanted the divorce, and even up to the time when they were supposed to be signing the papers, Susan was willing to take him back to try to work things out. He refused, so that’s how they ended up apart. Then we saw how Susan hooked up with Jackson: first, he was just supposed to be her house painter, but then after the divorce was finalized, she apparently needed male company one drunken night. They both wanted to keep it casual at first, but when Jackson mentions moving in and says that he loves Susan, she freaks out. She doesn’t want that because it’s obvious that she’s still holding out hope that she and Mike will be together again someday.

Gaby/Carlos: After Gaby’s miscarriage several years ago, her doctor told her that she probably wouldn’t ever be able to have kids. So she and Carlos stopped using contraception — which is how Juanita was born. And then they had another kid after that because Carlos still refused to use contraception (”What were the chances of lightning striking twice?”). After that, Gaby insisted that Carlos get a vasectomy. He said he did, but then after a scare about a late period, he admitted that he didn’t go through with the surgery. Gaby was pissed at first, but after Carlos explained that he feels blessed with their kids and has so much more love to give, Gaby relents and says maybe they can wait on the vasectomy.

Bree/Orson: After Orson went to prison and Danielle took Benjamin back, Bree started drinking again — to the point where she would pass out and not wake up for work. Katherine stepped in to help get Bree sober again, which is why Bree feels so indebted to her now, and why Bree doesn’t want to go over Katherine’s head to make Orson a partner in the business. Orson accepts this reasoning, and personally thanks Katherine for helping his wife. He then says he’ll earn the partnership, no matter how long it takes, to which Katherine replies that he won’t last two months working for Bree.

Lynette/Tom: A few years ago, Tom received an electric shock while working on some wiring in the restaurant. It stopped his heart, and when he recovered, he had a new perspective on life. He wanted to do more than “just” run a pizza restaurant. That’s why he bought his classic Mustang, and why he wants to sell the restaurant, buy an RV, and travel around the U.S. for a year. Lynette thinks he’s crazy, of course. After all, who’s going to earn money or pay the mortgage? But for some reason, Tom can’t see her practical point of view, so he storms off in a huff.

Dave/Edie: We didn’t really get a flashback telling how these two met, but we see that Dave is still hell-bent on ridding the neighborhood of Karen McCluskey. After planting the idea in Edie that McCluskey might be exhibiting some early signs of dementia, he decides to take his plan a step further. When Edie and McCluskey go out for a drink to celebrate Karen’s 70th birthday, Dave breaks into her house to rearrange her furniture. Later, at her surprise party, Karen flips out, accuses Dave of trying to intimidate her, and ends up getting taken away in an ambulance.

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good episode. I like having some of the blanks filled in like this, as it helps me make sense of how and why the characters have arrived where they’re at now. My favorite flashback was the one involving Bree, which is kind of funny considering how I think her present-day story is the most boring. It was cool to see how much she owes Katherine and that she actually acknowledges that debt. That restores my faith in the character for sure.

Susan and Jackson bore me as a couple, so I’m actually happy that Susan is holding out hope for a reunion with Mike. I want the writers to continue pushing her in that direction because that’s totally what Susan the Romantic would want. There’s no way the relationship with Jackson will turn into anything serious, right?

Tom was back to being an annoying jerk in this episode. Did he forget all about Lynette’s cancer, or what? He’s not the only Scavo with a near-death experience! Usually, I would agree with him about Lynette being a buzz kill, but this time Tom is way, WAY off base. Selling a thriving business to tool around the U.S. in an RV?? With school-age children in tow? That’s what retirement is for, Tom. Sure, we’d all like to live that way, but give me a break. Responsible adults don’t act like this.

I still don’t understand what Dave’s plan is all about. So he’s after a man on Wisteria Lane, and he needed McCluskey’s nosy self out of the way in order to continue. But we still don’t know who the target is or what the guy did to Dave in the first place. Oh, and isn’t it a bit worrisome that it’s so easy to get rid of the elderly? Simply break in, take down some pictures, move the furniture around, tamper with the Minka lighting, and you’re all set. Once the person reacts with anger, you’ll be able to pass her off as crazy and get her carted away in an ambulance for a psych eval. Nice.

Am I the only one bored by Gaby and her issues with the kids? Frumpy Gaby is not nearly as fun as glamorous, power-shopping Gaby…. boo!!!

Anyway, I liked this episode a lot and am really looking forward to the next one!

Teen idols Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale showed just how attractive they are to young audiences, as their film High School Musical 3: Senior Year easily defeated other competition at the box office. After the two previous installments of the franchise debuted on cable’s Disney Channel, the latest sequel was released in cinemas nationwide, earning a whopping $42 million in its first three days.

Second place went to the horror film Saw V with $30.5 million in ticket sales, while last week’s champ, Max Payne, slipped two spots to No. 3 after earning just $7.6 million — a nearly 60 percent drop from its opening weekend take.

The only other new entry to crack the box office charts was the Edward Norton/Colin Farrell police drama Pride and Glory, which earned a disappointing $6.33 million, good enough for fifth place.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending 10/26/08:

1. High School Musical 3: Senior Year, $42 million
2. Saw V, $30.5 million
3. Max Payne, $7.6 million
4. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, $6.92 million
5. Pride and Glory, $6.33 million
6. The Secret Life of Bees, $5.93 million
7. W., $5.33 million
8. Eagle Eye, $5.14 million
9. Body of Lies, $4.07 million
10. Quarantine, $2.55 million

Ever since I bought my Kindle ebook reader over the summer, I’ve been tearing through books like a madwoman. The device is so fun and convenient to use that I’m absolutely hooked on reading again! The only problem is that I have trouble finding new books to read, so I often peruse “Best of” lists for ideas.

That’s how I came across a novel called Play Dirty by Sandra Brown — an author I’d never heard of before. Play Dirty was featured on the Amazon.com Editor’s Picks of 2007 list, and since a star football player was one of the main characters, I decided to give it a try. That turned out to be a questionable call at best.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): As the All-Pro quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, handsome young Griff Burkett seemed to have it all: money, fame, a never-ending parade of women. But he threw that all away when he was convicted of gambling charges and sent away to prison for five years for shaving points on a playoff game. The FBI’s main informant in the case was murdered, and though the cops tried to hang that on Burkett as well, there simply wasn’t enough evidence for it.

Now Burkett is finally getting out of prison and looking forward to getting his life back on track. Problem is, he’s reviled throughout Texas because of his betrayal of the beloved Cowboys, and no one is exactly beating down his door in an effort to hire a convicted felon. To compound Griff’s problems, he’s being hounded by a cop named Rodarte, who will stop at nothing to finally nail Burkett for that murder.

Things start to get interesting when Griff is invited to the home of millionaire airline mogul Foster Speakman for a business meeting. Apparently, Speakman has a job opportunity for Griff. Griff thinks it might be an endorsement deal of some sort, so he is caught completely off guard when he hears Speakman’s real offer: get his beautiful wife Laura pregnant through “natural” means so the quadriplegic Speakman can have the heir he has always longed for. Keep everything quiet, and Griff will earn millions from the deal, ensuring that he’ll live comfortably for the rest of his life.

After wrestling with the moral implications of the deal for a short time, Griff accepts. From there, the novel veers into a soap opera-like tale that has Griff and Laura falling for each other for real. But of course there are numerous obstacles that the two must overcome before they can be together, and a couple of the plot twists are actually surprising. This being more of a romance than a thriller, however, every reader can guess how it ends.

My Reaction: I thought this novel had a lot of potential at first. Griff was an interesting, likable character, and I became quickly invested in what was happening in his life. Sure, the stud for hire plot was ridiculous, but once I got past the plausibility issues, I was curious to see how things would turn out. Plus, I enjoyed picturing this hot football player with his chiseled body that 4 ad users would envy. Griff was definitely not the weak link in this book!

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the novel was highly predictable. That Laura and Griff would fall in love was inevitable, and I knew that something terrible would have to happen to Speakman in order to get him out of the way for the two new lovebirds. Since readers were clearly meant to root for Griff and Laura, I figured the author would work it out so that Speakman turned out to be a bad guy (I mean beyond being 100 percent nuts), so those “twists” weren’t exactly surprising. I just wish they had made more sense, because as it was, everything seemed incredibly contrived (and yes, I know this is a novel and therefore completely contrived, but you get what I mean!).

Another thing that bothered me about Play Dirty was the Rodarte character. He seemed like a caricature more than anything else, and had a habit of conveniently showing up whenever the author needed to throw another wrench in Griff and Laura’s lives. Plus, the author didn’t bother explaining why Rodarte was so damned intent on nailing Griff for murder. Yes, she said something about Rodarte wanting to get “in” with the mafia, but come on. If he wanted to do that, why not just take Griff out himself? Why wait to hang a murder on him? Again, it made no sense.

Overall, Play Dirty might appeal to those who like cheesy romance novels, but that’s about it. The romantic leads are interesting enough, and Brown does a reasonable job of pacing the story to minimize the boring parts, but the main plot and the resolution just aren’t satisfying enough. This is beach reading; nothing more.

I apologize for being a day late with my weekly Grey’s Anatomy post, but I’ve been a bit under the weather and haven’t felt like sitting in front of my computer long enough to write out a recap. In fact, I still don’t feel up to writing an entire recap of the ep, so I’m just going to give you a few thoughts here. By the way, this one was called “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”, and actually moved several storylines along — so yay for that!

– Well, so much for Callie and Hahn taking it slow, huh? I thought it was kind of strange that Callie went to Mark for, ahem, pointers… wouldn’t that be considered cheating on Hahn? They’re probably not exclusive yet or anything, but Hahn has made her disgust for Sloan clear right from the beginning. She probably wouldn’t appreciate the fact that these new techniques are coming from him.

– Alex and Izzie together again! Finally! I think they’re the best couple on the show, and it’s hard to believe that they haven’t really been together since Season 2. I just wish Alex would accept that Izzie likes him, and start being nice to her for once. Otherwise, the relationship is kind of skeevy and practically abusive. I mean, he was nice to Ava, wasn’t he? What’s the dealio with the Izzie hate?

– Derek is such a complete and utter jerk for A) taking all the credit for the groundbreaking medical procedure; and B) acting absolutely shocked and astonished that Meredith would be upset about not being mentioned. Wow, is this guy for real???

– I love, love, LOVE the nickname Lexipedia! Please tell me this is the first time anyone has used it, because there’s no way I could have missed this before, right? I also like the fact that Lexie finally called George out for being such a clueless imbecile, but I thought she did it in the completely wrong context. Everyone made it clear that residents don’t get to choose their interns, so I don’t know why she chose to go off on that in particular. She should have laid into him for standing her up for those celebration beers after he passed the exam. Oh, and 10:1 she forgives him within the next 2 eps!

– Cristina and the army doc who did the tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen… sweet! If the season premiere was any indication, I think they’ll be a good — or at least interesting — couple. I can’t wait to see how this one develops.

– Glad to see something work out for Bailey for once. She’s way too good of a doctor to be falling apart or having things go wrong all the time like last season. But seriously, was it necessary to show all those kidneys being pulled out? I didn’t even need to take my daily dose of alli to help suppress my appetite — just seeing the kidney removals did the job for me!

Well, that’s about all I can think of right now. I’m anxious to see how Cristina/army doc and Alex/Izzie develop, and am looking forward to next week.

Out of all the film genres out there, teen comedies are probably my least favorite. This might cause me to worry that I’m just too old and out of touch to understand the younger generation, but I had John Hughes movies to lean on when I was in that age group, and no one has been able to fill his shoes since then. Today’s teen movies aren’t nearly as smart, funny, or insightful as Hughes’ stuff when he was in his prime, so there’s usually no reason to get excited about these films.

That being said, I’d heard some pretty good things about the 2004 film Eurotrip, so I decided to rent it last weekend. Unfortunately, it was just another letdown, with very few laughs and an incredibly weak storyline.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Scott Thomas (played by Scott Mechlowicz) just graduated from high school and is looking forward to spending the summer with girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk) before heading off to Oberlin College in the fall. But Fiona unexpectedly dumps Scott right after the ceremony, and later that night at a party, Donny (Matt Damon), lead singer of the band Lustra, performs a song called “Scotty Doesn’t Know” that makes it abundantly clear that Fiona had been cheating on Scott for a long time. Humiliated, Scott goes home to vent to his German pen pal Mieke (Jessica Boehrs).

Scott has mistakenly thought all along that Mieke was a guy, so when Mieke suggests meeting so she can comfort him, Scott freaks out, calls “him” a perv, and logs off. The next day, however, Scott’s brother points out the error, and when Scott reexamines a picture of Mieke with her cousin (he originally thought the cousin was Mieke), he scrambles to get back in her good graces. But she has blocked his email address, so he can’t get through to her.

Rather than take 10 seconds to create a new email account, Scott decides that the best course of action would be to go to Berlin to find Mieke and apologize face-to-face. So he recruits best friend Cooper (Jacob Harris) to join him, and they fly to London first (because it’s cheaper), thinking they’ll make it to Berlin somehow. Scott and Cooper meet up with brother and sister duo Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester) in Paris, and from there, the foursome meander around Europe trying to get to Mieke’s home.

The rest of the film then features all the scenes you’d expect from a trip through Europe, including a stop in Amsterdam and various drug/sex mishaps. Of course, Scotty and Mieke eventually get together and end up in a relationship when they learn that both will be attending Oberlin.

My Reaction: I was thoroughly bored by EuroTrip, but can’t say that I was disappointed with the film. After all, I wasn’t expecting this viewing experience to amount to very much, so in that respect, I was correct. It was pretty much one cliché from beginning to end, and had surprisingly few laughs along the way. I thought there would be at least a few funny scenes, considering some of the positive reviews I’ve read, but no.

The best part of the whole movie was Donny singing “Scotty Doesn’t Know”, but since that scene occurred within the first 10 minutes, I was left with a whole lot of boring stuff to sit through for the rest of the running time.

I can’t believe an entire film was based on the incredibly flimsy premise of someone blocking an email account. Um, how freakin’ difficult would it have been to write to Mieke from a different account??? I mean, maybe if the girl had been in Michigan instead of Germany, I could understand Scotty wanting to see her in person, but traveling all the way to Berlin? Yeah, right. And no offense to the actress, but it’s not as though she was drop-dead gorgeous, ya know? He could have gotten someone equally as nice and attractive at Oberlin.

Overall, EuroTrip turned out to be a huge waste of time. The only good thing about it is the “Scotty Doesn’t Know” song. Watch the first 10 minutes of the movie to get an idea of what the lyrics are about, and then hit up iTunes for the download. That’s all that’s worth taking away from this film. I give it 3.5 stars out of 10.

Private Practice 2×03 — “Nothing to Talk About”: Although Dell has never been one of my favorite characters and although I think his crush on Naomi is a bit skeevy, I have to admit that I’m happy he’ll be returning to his old job. He’s one of those characters that you don’t really notice or miss until he’s gone, so it’ll be good to have him back — as long as he acts like a mature adult instead of a lovesick teen.

I don’t know why, but I’m still not feeling it as far as Addison and the SWAT guy go. Maybe it’s because he’s not all that good-looking and Addison seems way, WAY out of his league. It doesn’t help that the actors don’t have much chemistry together, either. Why does Addie have to be in a relationship at this point. How about just inviting Sloan down for a booty call every once in a while? Now that would be a good time!

I’m glad everyone’s airing out their differences. Hopefully they’ll all start getting along a little better now and things can return to normal.

House 5×05 — “Lucky Thirteen”: I love that House and Wilson are almost back to normal in their friendship already. I seriously had no idea what was up with those syringes in Wilson’s garbage bag, and still didn’t get it even after that smile spread across House’s face (absolutely spot-on acting by Hugh Laurie, BTW). But the reveal was hilarious, and the fact that Wilson used Amber’s name to “sell” House on the joke made it clear that he is indeed ready to move on.

The medical stuff was a snooze — probably because Thirteen was involved. I was so hopeful and happy when House fired her, and I thought that perhaps the producers were letting Olivia Wilde go because of negative fan reaction. So, yeah, I was devastated when House took her back. And all that girl-on-girl action? Been there, done that — meaning I saw Olivia Wilde doing the same thing to Mischa Barton on The O.C. Snooze-o-rama.

Entourage 5×07 — “Gotta Look Up to Get Down”: I thought the Vince/model storyline was completely boring. I don’t know what’s going on, but I haven’t been able to get into anything he’s been doing recently. The most interesting part of the show was definitely Ari’s new job offer. I didn’t know that Ari had aspirations of becoming a studio head, but I can see him handling it. What will he do with his agency, though?

Also, I didn’t buy the fact that Vinnie was so sad and mopey after hearing that Ari might not be his agent anymore. What was up with that whole “Let’s finish what we started” speech?? Didn’t Vinnie and E fire Ari just a couple of seasons ago? Vinnie wasn’t exactly sentimental back then, was he.

A “ticking clock” element in a film usually serves to give the action a sense of urgency. A bomb will explode in 10 minutes unless the hero can deactivate it. The FBI have 1 hour to give into a terrorist’s demands or else a bunch of hostages will die. There’s only 30 minutes’ worth of oxygen left in the craft before the crew suffocate to death. The ticking clock puts viewers on the edge of their seats as they wonder whether or not the rescue will be made in time.

This plot device is used in the 2008 thriller 88 Minutes, but because the main character doesn’t seem at all worried about the circumstances, neither does the audience. As a result, the ticking clock becomes merely a transparent gimmick that serves no real purpose to the main action.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Dr. Jack Gramm (played by Al Pacino) is a forensic psychiatrist and university professor who routinely cooperates with the FBI to help put serial killers behind bars. One of the murderers Gramm’s testimony put away was Jon Forster (Neal McDonough), the so-called Seattle Slayer whose execution is scheduled to occur within the next 24 hours. Forster spends the day making appearances on news programs to once again declare his innocence and denounce Gramm as a fraud, all in the hopes of receiving a stay from the governor.

Meanwhile, another murder has just occurred (the victim being an acquaintance of Gramm’s) and has been carried out in exactly the same fashion as all the Seattle Slayer killings. The problem is, some of the details present at the new crime scene were never released to the public. That means either Forster really is innocent or else he has an accomplice who is still at large.

While local police and FBI agents work on the latest crime, Dr. Gramm gets a threatening message. He has exactly 88 minutes left to live. There’s no further explanation given, no tasks to perform… the only message is that Dr. Gramm will die in 88 minutes.

Gramm takes this to mean that he must find out who’s behind the threat, so that’s what he does. The rest of the film consists of him trying to track down the new killer — which essentially means suspecting every person in his life at the moment. In the end, Gramm doesn’t so much solve the case as get brought in front of the killer for a confrontation, which of course turns out the way movie audiences expect it to.

My Reaction: I’m not a huge fan of Al Pacino or anything like that, but his films are usually worth watching. 88 Minutes, however, does not fall into this category, as it was just so ludicrous and nonsensical that I can’t believe it didn’t go straight to DVD.

For starters, what was the point of giving Gramm 88 minutes to live? The killer didn’t need Gramm to do anything for her, so why even give him the opportunity to track her down? Sure, the screenwriters tried to make some idiotic connection to Gramm’s sister’s 88-minute torture session, but give me a break. The whole thing was just dumb.

To make matters worse, Gramm acted calm, cool, and collected the entire time, and didn’t give the impression that he was racing against the clock. I mean, he wasted the first 10-15 minutes teaching a freakin’ class, for god’s sake! What was that about? Even if he didn’t take the deadline seriously, you’d think that at the very least he’d bring the threat to the attention of the cops. But no, let’s just go in and teach as usual. Whatever. This utter lack of urgency on Gramm’s part made it hard for me as a viewer to care what was going on. If he didn’t think he was really going to die, why should I worry about it?

And finally, can someone please tell me why the killer would attempt to take out Gramm well before the 88-minute deadline? What was with shooting at him, starting a fire in his building, and blowing up his car? It made no sense at all, and brings me back to my initial point about why set the deadline in the first place.

Overall, I thought 88 Minutes was a terribly lame attempt at a thriller. There was no suspense, no mystery, no logic at all to the plot. Even Pacino in his prime wouldn’t have been good enough to save this one. I give it 3.5 stars out of 10.

I’ve finally managed to finish the entire first season of NCIS, and I have to say that I absolutely loved the last five or six episodes! It took quite a while, but the characters have really grown on me now, and I like the fact that the writers are developing a storyline (that mysterious British terrorist) that arcs beyond a couple of episodes. I am definitely on board for Season 2, and will be hounding my friend until she hands over her DVDs!

– I thought the “Split Decision” episode was one of the best of the year. That was the one that featured the ATF agent posing as a minor arms dealer, and featured the double-cross at the end. I never saw that coming. Pretty slick!

– I can’t decide if I like Kate or not. In some episodes she’s extremely annoying and is clearly the weakest link in the cast (for me, at least), but in others she’s actually quite tolerable. I’ve heard from others that she’s only on for the first two seasons, so I guess I won’t have to worry about her too much longer.

– Ducky’s “meat puzzle” has to be one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen on the show to date. And I’ve learned that this particular plot point also extends into the second season. Lovely. I can’t wait.

– I loved how determined Gibbs was to learn Ari Haswari’s identity. I can’t believe they actually got a name, as Haswari didn’t have a record or anything to go by. Props to McGee and the software program he wrote to help grab Haswari’s college photo. And I also enjoyed seeing Gibbs pop Haswari in the shoulder as payback for Gerald.

– I had to laugh during the “Dead Man Talking” episode when it was revealed that the “female” suspect the team had under surveillance was actually a man — especially since the reveal came just after Tony had kissed her in the bar. Yikes, I bet he spent the whole night checking out Brazil vacation packages so he could get away for a while and not deal with the relentless teasing that was sure to come!

– Another good episode in the last grouping here was “A Weak Link”, the one where a Marine died during a training mission. It was discovered that one of the links in his rappelling gear had been tampered with, so the team treated the incident like a murder investigation as usual. Then it came out that the guy had really committed suicide — again, another good twist that most other crime shows like this don’t bother with anymore.

Ok, that’s all I can think of right now. I can’t wait to start watching Season 2!