Reviews and More

: I don’t have time to do a regular recap of this episode, so I’m just going to post a few thoughts about it. 2×16 was the Season 2 finale, and was called “Lesser Evil”. In it, Michael learned some new things about Victor, got rid of the nuisance that was Carla, and finally met “Management”. This was a solid way to exit S2, and provided a decent setup for Season 3.

– I liked that Michael and Victor started working together to expose Carla. It’s just too bad that the partnership had to end as quickly as it began. I’m surprised Mike teared up when he had to shoot Victor. It was the only play in that situation, as Victor said. It seems as though Michael is not cut out for that sort of thing, which is bad news for a spy, right?

– Thank goodness Fiona finally got a chance to shoot Carla! That was a long time coming. I didn’t exactly hate the character, but it just seemed that the writers were dragging out her involvement unnecessarily. She wasn’t really doing anything except preventing Mike from doing stuff he wanted to do. She was just a drag!

– I loved Madeline’s line about blending in with all the other 60+ women in Miami! Yes, indeed. If you can pick her out from that white-haired crowd, more power to you!

– How cool (albeit unrealistic) was it for Mike to jump out of the helicopter right into the ocean?? And he looked like he was a good 3-5 miles off shore. That’s quite a swim, especially when decked out in an Armani suit. Yikes.

– Well, now we know why none of Mike’s enemies ever came after him. Management was protecting him! Let’s see what kind sticky situations he gets into next season without any bigwigs watching his back. Somehow, I think Mike, Fiona, and Sam will manage just fine on their own…!

(Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Skeeter Bronson (played by Adam Sandler) is an underachieving hotel handyman. As a child, he helped run his father’s motel, and loved every minute of it. But the motel was eventually bought out by millionaire business mogul Mr. Nottingham (Richard Griffiths), who built a massive luxury hotel on the grounds. As part of the deal, Nottingham agreed to let Skeeter run the place someday, but he didn’t keep up his end of the bargain. Skeeter is sticking around in the hopes that something will eventually change — despite the fact that Nottingham’s future son-in-law Kendall (Guy Pearce) is slated to take over.

Skeeter’s usually quiet life is disrupted a bit when sister Wendy (Courteney Cox) asks him to watch her kids Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit) and Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling) for a week. The school where she serves as principal is going to be torn down to make way for the newest Nottingham hotel, so Wendy needs to go to Arizona to interview for a job. Skeeter just has to watch them at night because in the morning, Wendy’s friend Jill (Keri Russell) will take them to school, where they’ll stay for the day.

On the first night together, Skeeter decides to tell the kids a bedtime story. He makes one up, with the kids adding ludicrous details, such as having it suddenly rain gumballs from the sky. The next day, incredibly enough, Skeeter gets into a situation where… it rains gumballs. Of course, there was a rational explanation, as an overturned candy truck caused the spillage. Nevertheless, Skeeter thinks the kids’ story might have come true, so he decides to test his theory the next night.

This time around, Skeeter and the kids create a story where he saves a damsel in distress. Skeeter adds that he should get a Ferrari as a reward, hoping that this part will come true the next day. Sure enough, many parts of the story do come true — except for the Ferrari. Skeeter then surmises that only what the kids say will come true, which turns out to be correct.

The rest of the film then shows Skeeter trying to use this situation to his advantage in getting a promotion from Mr. Nottingham. He prods the kids to tell stories with outcomes that he wants, and, in a rather roundabout way, achieves success in the end — just not with Mr. Nottingham. Instead, Skeeter saves the school, marries Jill, and opens his own family-friendly motel.

My Reaction: I usually like Adam Sandler, so it wouldn’t have taken much for me to enjoy this movie. Unfortunately, however, Bedtime Stories just failed to deliver in the entertainment department. This was a pretty cool concept (what if the stories you told came to life?), but the execution was miserable.

First of all, I thought the stories themselves were kind of dumb. Those should have been the highlight of the film. They should have been funny and creative. Instead, they were boring and unoriginal, and the CGI was god-awful (I don’t know if that was intentionally so or not).

Second, there weren’t even that many laughs in the movie. If there’s one thing I expect when seeing Adam Sandler star in something, it’s to laugh several times throughout the film (excluding Reign Over Me and Punch-Drunk Love, of course). But all I got out of Bedtime Stories was a few chuckles and a couple of smiles. What a disappointment!

The bottom line is that I just didn’t have a very good time watching Bedtime Stories. I was hoping for something that the whole family could enjoy watching, but all of us were bored after about 45 minutes. There’s not much here to recommend, so I give this film 4 stars out of 10.

While most guys probably know that jewelry is a great gift for almost any occasion, few of them actually know how to pick out appropriate pieces. As a woman, there are few things worse than having to wear a hideous bracelet or ring just because your man bought it for your birthday. Sure, we’re taught that it’s the thought that counts, but let’s be real here. No one can truly appreciate ugly jewelry!

So that’s why I really like what online retailer Bella True has done on their website. They feature a section called “Tips for Guys” that contains a number of articles designed to help men select the perfect necklace, pendant, earrings, or brooch for their significant other. The articles include helpful information about how to choose the right jewelry for special occasions (such as birthdays and anniversaries), how to properly say “I’m sorry” with a thoughtful present, and much more. They’re written with a great sense of humor, but the advice is actually spot-on!

It’s been a very long time since I’ve received any jewelry as a gift… I might just have to point my husband to the Bella True website in the near future!

Plot summary (with spoilers): Margaret Tate (played by Sandra Bullock) is a take-no-prisoners editor at a major New York City publishing house. She’s the kind of boss who inspires frantic text messages amongst her underlings to let each other know that she’s coming and that she’s on the warpath. Her assistant, aspiring writer Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) appears to be the only one that can deal successfully with Margaret. But that means anticipating her every order and catering to her every whim — something that clearly bugs him. Of course, there’s an ulterior motive here. Andrew puts up with Margaret’s crap in the hopes of being promoted to full editor someday and of having his own manuscript published.

One day, Margaret gets a warning from INS saying that she has failed to acknowledge previous notices about her visa expiration. She no longer has permission to work in the United States, and will be deported back to Canada within days. Margaret is shocked by the news, but quickly formulates a plan to stay in the country. She’ll force Andrew to marry her so she can get a green card. In return, she’ll finally give him the promotion he’s been working for for three years.

Andrew immediately accepts. However, the INS agent Mr. Gilbertson (Denis O’Hare) is suspicious about the circumstances of the upcoming wedding. He promises to grill the couple thoroughly regarding personal details that real couples would know the answers to, and threatens jail time if he can prove their fraudulent intentions.

To get to know each other better, Andrew and Margaret decide to take a weekend trip to Andrew’s hometown in Alaska to celebrate Grandma Annie’s (Betty White) birthday. There, Andrew introduces Margaret to his mother Grace (Mary Steenburgen), father Joe (Craig T. Nelson) and the rest of his family and friends as his fiancée. Everyone is surprised, but don’t suspect the real reasons behind the engagement.

As the weekend progresses, Margaret softens up quite a bit as she sees this other side of Andrew. She realizes that she can’t let Andrew risk jail for her, so she calls the whole thing off, and heads back to New York to pack up for Canada. But at the same time, Andrew realizes that he has come to love Margaret, so he rushes after her. This time he proposes for real, saying he wants to marry her so they can start dating.

My Reaction: Romantic comedies usually aren’t my thing, but I was intrigued by the strong word-of-mouth The Proposal has generated, as well as by its $140 million plus take at the box office thus far. With several other attractive choices at the theater, I decided to see this one. I wasn’t disappointed!

Sure, the premise of this film was rather flimsy (it’s not like being sent to Canada is as depressing a prospect as, say, being deported to the Sudan) and I saw this exact same storyline unfold on Desperate Housewives last season, but Bullock and Reynolds had quite a bit of chemistry and were both great in their roles. At first it seemed that Andrew would be a total pushover like he was in the office, which would have been very boring. Fortunately, he grew a pair as soon as they were back in Alaska, and that made the bickering between him and Margaret all the more fun.

There were lots of chuckles and smiles in this film, and several laugh-out-loud moments as well (particularly, when the two crashed into each other completely naked). That’s all I ask for from romantic comedies! (Seriously, though, I could have done without seeing Oscar from The Office as an erotic dancer.)

Overall, The Proposal was a fun movie that was actually enjoyable and entertaining. This would be a great choice for a date, a girls’ night out, or for anyone looking to turn their brain off for a couple hours. I give it 7.0 stars out of 10.

Entourage 6×03 — “One Car, Two Car, Red Car, Blue Car”: I actually thought this was a pretty solid episode overall. I can’t tell if that’s because the first two eps of Season 3 were totally crappy, or if this latest was really a good effort. But it finally felt that something is happening on the show — even if none of it really involves Vince yet.

– Ashley is all kinds of annoying. She doesn’t even seem like E’s type at all. Why would he go from Sloan to that?? It makes no sense. Unfortunately, it looks like this character is sticking around for a while, so I guess I’ll have to try to get used to her.

– I’m thrilled that they’re finally going to give Turtle something to do besides smoke pot and drive Vince around town! I actually like him (I know most Entourage fans don’t) and am looking forward to seeing what he can do with his life. UCLA Extension… Go Bruins!

– The celeb cameo of the week was 50 Cent. Not much of a scene, but then again, they hardly ever are.

– I usually don’t like any storyline involving Eric, but I have to admit I enjoyed seeing him try to go to bat for Charlie. It was funny how he asked for Ari’s advice, told him it was stupid, and then ended up using the race card anyway. I also liked his conversation with Ari afterwards, and how he felt bad about what he had done. Bottom line: E is far more likable and believable when he fails every once in a while and when he recognizes Ari’s talent rather than putting him down all the time.

– All those movie offers for Vince! Wow, he could sign on for a $12 million project if he wants it. Must be nice. No wonder he could afford to buy Turtle a $270,000 car for his birthday!

– I read somewhere that Rex Lee’s character Lloyd was supposed to be off the show by the third ep, to be replaced by Autumn Reeser, but I guess not. Not only was Lloyd still there, but Autumn is playing Lizzie Grant, the young agent that Andrew is supposed to be having an affair with. Looks like the spoiler site I read had it all wrong.

Overall, I was encouraged by this ep. It was enjoyable, set a lot of different storylines in motion, and even had a couple of funny moments. Let’s hope this keeps up for the rest of the season!

After just one week at the top of the box office, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was knocked out of first place by a surprising competitor: the 3-D animated kids film G-Force. Hollywood insiders didn’t expect much out of G-Force, which stars the voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Cruz, nor did critics give it much of a chance (it has just a 20% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences shelled out $32.2 million over the weekend to see the Mission Impossible-styled flick.

Potter earned another $30 million, while the Katherine Heigl-Gerard Butler romantic comedy The Ugly Truth had a solid debut with $27 million in its first weekend of wide release.

The only other new release to crack the list was the horror film Orphan, which generated $12.8 million in revenue.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for the weekend ending July 26, 2009:

1. G-Force, $32.2 million
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, $30 million
3. The Ugly Truth, $27 million
4. Orphan, $12.8 million
5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, $8.2 million
6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $8 million
7. The Hangover, $6.46 million
8. The Proposal, $6.42 million
9. Public Enemies, $4.17 million
10. Bruno, $2.72 million

Moonlighting 4×10 — “Tracks of My Tears”: Finally, a decent Moonlighting episode in Season 4!! Although “Tracks of My Tears” again failed to feature a case, at least Maddie is back in L.A., and she and David had a substantial scene together. And it sure didn’t take them long to start bickering again, did it? That was a wonderful scene and reminded me exactly why Moonlighting was so successful in its earlier years.

– I can’t stand the fact that Maddie got married to that sniveling little accountant, Walter Bishop. That is just so out-of-character for Maddie Hayes that it practically ruined the episode for me. Fortunately the reveal came at the very end.

– I have to admit that I thought Maddie’s final appearance at Blue Moon was another dream sequence. I didn’t figure out it was the real thing until she looked over and saw David watching her from outside his office.

– Speaking of David watching from outside, I absolutely loved the Body Heat homage earlier in the ep. It was hysterical when David threw a tricycle through the window (as opposed to a chair, like William Hurt used in the movie).

– I was a bit put off by David’s reaction to the news that Maddie was married. Yes, I know he was shocked by the whole thing and thought it was utterly ridiculous, but I didn’t like how he laughed and mocked so relentlessly. I was hoping to see he was hurt at least a little bit, because after all, this is supposed to be the woman he loves. But I guess after waiting 4 1/2 months and doing everything on Maddie’s terms, his patience just wore off.

Anyway, I vaguely remember this stuff about Maddie being married, but I’ve completely forgotten how it turned out on the show, so I’m eager to continue watching my DVDs. Come to think of it, I don’t even know how the baby storyline turned out…. I have a lot of catching up to do!

Episode 2×15 of Burn Notice was called “Sins of Omission” and served to reveal a bit more about Michael’s pre-Miami background. We learned that he was previously engaged to another spy named Samantha (Sam), but that he broke it off and never bothered telling anyone about the relationship. So Fiona, the other Sam, and his mother are all completely shocked when they hear the news. Not much progress was made on the actual burn notice problem, though, and with just one episode left in the season, I can’t really see where the storyline is headed at this point.

Odd Job of the Week: Sam, Michael’s ex-fiancé, shows up at his door one day to say that she’s in big trouble. She’s basically a high-priced thief, and got into some kind of situation with a black market trader named Brennen. To make a long story short, she had to install herself at a Defense Department contractor in order to steal a very sophisticated, expensive chip that would compromise national security if it ever got out. But Sam had no choice in the matter, as Brennen kidnapped her young son Charlie in order to ensure cooperation. She doesn’t actually want the chip to get out, but she needs her son back.

Michael agrees to help, so he, Fiona, and original Sam accompany other Sam to the exchange meeting, where they hope to surprise Brennen and get the boy back without giving up the chip. But Brennen proves to be a smart guy, and has rigged Charlie with a bomb to guarantee a clean getaway. But no problem. Michael and Fiona just do their thing (as themselves this time — no undercover ID necessary), and right the situation in the end.

Burn Notice Progress: Michael talks to Carla about Victor and gets her to agree to back off him for a while to give him more room to maneuver. Michael attempts to reach out to Victor, perhaps come to some sort of arrangement where they stay out of each other’s way, but Victor doesn’t seem all to receptive to that. His motives for going after Michael are still unclear, but we do learn that Victor was burned by Philip Cowan, the same guy who issued the order for Michael.

Character Development: As I mentioned above, we learned that Michael was previously engaged. Also, there was a moment when he thought Charlie might be his son. Actually, I was kind of hoping that was the case. I think Michael would be a great father, and that kind of twist would certainly make his life more complicated.

There’s just one episode left in Season 2. I wonder what kind of cliffhanger we’ll be given?!

I’m always late to get in on a hot trend. Just look at my last post, where it says I finally got an iPhone, a full two years after the initial release. This doesn’t only apply to tech products, either. I was late jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon as well, and didn’t begin reading the series until the fourth book was released in 2000. But I ended up loving those books, and bought subsequent titles as soon as they were available — in paperback.

Since I enjoyed those books so much, I want to share the experience with my son. He’s just six now, so the content is still too difficult for him to read on his own, but in a few years he’ll be ready. I don’t want to pass on my cheapo paperbacks to him; I want to give him something more substantial, like this beautiful Harry Potter Boxed Set I saw on the Buy.com website.

This set contains all seven books from the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. These are all hardcover versions, and they come in a very nice, decorative box that looks like a trunk — complete with working lock and key!

This is collector’s set that any Harry Potter fan would love to have. It’s on sale for $117 right now, which is 40% off the suggested retail price of $195. Though that price might sound a little high, it’s actually a terrific deal when you consider the fact that each book originally cost around $18 when released in hardcover.

Anyway, I would love to get this Harry Potter boxed set for my son. Hopefully I’ll be able to save something out of my next couple of paychecks in order to buy it!

I am just testing out my brand-new iPhone here. The WordPress app is actually very easy to use, and typing on the touch screen isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Mobile blogging, here I come!!! (Finally!)