Terminator: Sarah Connor Cronicles Season 2

This is a must see! I just watched the first episode of the second season. I repeat, this is a must see. This show is very well written and John Connor is rising up to be the man of his destiny.

4 Credits

Alex and Emma

I know, I know...I can't believe I'm even writing this. I just happened by seeing this movie as nothing else was on and I was winding down from a long day at work. I saw Alex and Emma. It's a clever romantic comedy (and I hate romatic comedys) staring Luke Wilson and Kate Hudson. Kate Hudson actually did pretty well and I'm not a fan of hers by any means. But Luke wilson is a very believable regular joe. Luke is Alex, a writer and Kate is Emma who is hired to type while Alex dictates his novel. As Alex tells his story the actors flash to the charactors in his book. He has to finish the book with in 29 days before loan sharks come to collect money Alex lost gambling. Over all pretty funny and ends happy. They had decent chemistry and the story was some what interesting. Not a bad date movie (one for the girls).

I give it 2.5 credits

Cassandra's Dream

Cassandra's Dream is a sad but interesting story about two brothers (Colin Ferrell and Ewan McGregor) in London. These brothers are the best of friends and they buy a boat together which they call Cassandr's Dream.

A rich uncle comes to town for a visit and the brothers are excited to talk to him about borrowing money. Terry (Colin Ferrell) has aquired gambling debts and is afraid of the price he will have to pay. Ian (Ewan McGregor) has dreams of investing in hotels in California and wants to impress his new girl friend. But to their surprise the uncle needs their help. His finances are under investigation and an old business partner "needs to be taken care of." His two nephews are the only ones he can trust to help him and in return Terry's debts will be paid and Ian will have the money to invest in his dream. What could go wrong?

This is like a Greek Tragidy. I really liked both brothers and the film was cast very well. I was blown away by Colin Ferrell. A great line in this film is when Terry says to his brother Ian "we always have a choice." There is not alot of action but the acting is pretty well done and you really feel for the characters in the end. However, I wish they put in more fear of the loan sharks coming after Terry. Other than that, a sad but interesting story.


2.5 Credits

The DARK Knight

I finally got to see "The Dark Knight" (let alone a movie) last Saturday. I was boiling over with anticipation. So many reviews were in with an outstanding call that this will be the best movie of the year, possibly the best comic book movie of all time.

What I am about to write is going against every review and most of what I've heard. I found "The Dark Knight" to be just that, too dark. I know, (the three poeple who actually see this BLOG) the earth just stopped for a moment. Let me explain myself. This Batman movie was very well made. Exceptionally cast, minus the replacement of Bruce Wayne's love interest Rachel Dawes played by (What The Freak!) Maggie Gyllenhaal. Oh where to begin...let's start with the obvious, the Joker was too evil. Yes Heath Ledger did an amazing job and will win an Oscar but if I wanted to watch "A Clockwork Orange" I would of rented it. (Spoiler Alert) The Joker kills with out any remorse weather it's innocent people in the street or his own thugs. And the false Batman's dead body swinging from the building was too graphic and too much.

Two Face Harvey Dent was traggic and I actually crindged when I saw his face. (Very disturbing) His story, rise and fall was sad.

I did find the Scarcrow's return to be an obious attemp to show that the Batman has surpassed his previous enemies. He who was so dangerious in the first movie was defeated in the first few minuets.

This is a comic book turned into a movie? I think this time the Batman movie went too dark and the next one will have to be something different. I only hope they don't try to go darker as they so often do. I did not leave the theater with a good feeling like I did with the first one.

I will not see this movie again.

The Natural

Tanya and I decided to have a "turn back the clock" night by watching an oldy but a goody. A Robert Redford movie called the Natural. Usually I'm not a big Redford fan (only b/c he thinks he rules the film industry) but this is a great flick every one can enjoy. It's a fairly original story about an unknown farm boy who could be the best baseball has ever seen. Better than the "Babe", better than Ted Williams and better than Hank Aaron.

Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is injured by mysterious circumstances and after 16 years returns to the game in the 1930's as an over the hill rookie. Thought to be some kind of joke the manager plays Hobbs with nothing to loose only to be surprised by his amazing ability to play the game. Due to team corruption and health Hobbs' love for the game and his new life as a baseball player come to a dramatic intersection.

I really enjoyed this movie and it was fanned with other great actors like Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Robert Duvall, Michael Madson and Willford Brimley. The kids may be bored but grownups should Check it Out! I give it 3 out of 4 credits.

Prison Break

I've been going through 24 withdrawls since the tragic writters strike. I rented the first season of Prison Break. It's close to the intensity of 24 and the crazy plot twists of Lost, a good substitue any way. The story goes as such: Lincoln played by Dominic Purcell (no relation) gets arrested for killing the VP's brother. A crime he did not comit...yes a bit cliche but there aren't too many original ideas left. He is set to be put to death in a month but his brother Michael gets himself arrested to help break his brother out (hense the title). It's clever but some times too clever, however, it's very well cast and pretty believable. Check it out, DVD rental is the only way to go or you'll go insane wondering what's going to happen next.
(I still miss Jack Bauer screaming "We're running out of time!")

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

This was a good movie, better than the first actually. If you love C.S. Lewis or if you love fairy tale adventure movies than you will enjoy this one. However, if you don't know the story or didn't see the first film you might be a little lost. It's more toned down than LOTR but tells the story quite well and stays close to the book. It has a great not so hard to grasp theme of faith is important and wonderful special effects. The main 4 actors are british and at times can be a little annoying but other than that I really liked it. Peter Dinklage (Elf) and Warwick Davis (Willow) did a great job playing good and evil dwarves and liam Neeson was the voice of Aslan. This is a great family movie 13 and up. Enjoy and escape!

AVP 2

AVP 2...sucked. Why do I keep doing this to myself. I guess it's because I loved the first Preditor so much when I was 15. AVP (1) was bad but the sequel was so painful I pushed fast forward just to get it over with. And the ending, please tell me that wasn't a set up for another one. Ok, to stay true to my critique, I will now set up the movie for any unsuspecting poor sap who would foolishly disregard my advice. A preditor ship carrying Alien cargo is breached and wrecks on earth. A dying preditor calls home for help. We then see trouble in a small town when both Alien and Preditor kill humans like squashing bugs on a side walk. Please just skip it and pray they don't make another b/c I'll have to watch it too.

Beowulf = Beoskip

Such possibilities such sorrow. I vaguely remember reading the story of Beowulf in 9th grade but I didn't remember it being quite so violent. It started out interesting until I saw the monster Grendel biting off heads and tearing apart bodies. Beowulf is the last of the heroes and goes to stop the monster Grendel for money and fame. Grendel is killed and his mother (Angelina Jolie) takes revenge. Beowulf makes a deal with her and becomes king. Beowulf has more troubles later as an old King when his deal with Gredel's mother is broken. He must fight a dragon more deadly than any monster he has faced before. Good story but I still say skip it unless you want to catch up on your mythology. However, the special effects were amazing and the dragon at the end was really well done.

88 Minutes

This is a movie I was very interested in seeing. I love the whole concept to race against time. Death vs life, Murder vs law. From what I've read and heard this is a disappointment. It's regular Al being Al. (Big and loud!) Don't get me wrong, I love big and loud Al so there is still hope for this for me. Tick Tock!

The Voting Pole is closed!

In a last min. tight race the winner of the favorite genre of movies is the thriller/suspense. My personal favorite. Thank you to all those who voted and thanks for noth'n to those who didn't.

The Iron Man

Iron Man looks to be an awesome comic book made to movie. Iron Man is a human super hero much like Batman. With millions of dollars to use for the good vs evil cause, Tony Stark is one tough SOB. I am very excited to see this movie and will write about it soon. It comes out in early May.

Enchanted

Tanya and I watched Enchanted. This is a movie (fairly new) that starts out as a fairy tale cartoon and ends up in real life New York. A princess (Amy Adams) is pushed into a magic well by an evil queen and found by a local New Yorker (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter. The prince comes to rescue her aided by his not so trustworthy servant and a chipmunk. But things aren't always what they seem in fairy tales. It was very clever with a great cast but mildly predictable. I would highly recommend this movie for any family or date night. Sit back, pop some popcorn and enjoy, there aren't too many movies these days that the whole family can watch together.

Batman vs The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is coming out this summer. (I believe) I'm a little disturbed by the Joker. Heath Ledger plays the Joker and so far there is a lot of build up. I thought Batman Begins was the best Batman film and arguably the best comic book film ever made.

TV Land's... High School Reunion?

High School Reunion is a new sho on TV Land that I really enjoy. (I think it's because I'm about to turn 32.) It's about a high school 20 year reunion set in Hawaii. Yes it's reality TV, but it's fun to see people resort back to their former selves in "high school". There is drama, one class mate's ex-wife and his ex-best friend, who how should we say, hooked up with her. Another class mate, who was the geek in school now is getting to know the high school babe. And so and so.

I don't know why I like this show...I hated high school.

Tom Selleck...Jesse Stone

I guess it's the fact I still love Magnum P.I. but I have some what stumbled apon a series of Tom Selleck made for TV movies (USA). They are about a small town police chief in a town called Paridise. There are 3 movies so far and a forth is being filmed. The first is Stone Cold followed by Jesse Stone: Night Passage and Jesse Stone: Death in Paridase. The forth installment will be called Jesse Stone: Thin Ice. They're not the best movies acting wise (the dialog seems a little too quick) but if you like the small town cop big town crime like I do you, will enjoy these movies.

Lost again!

I really do like Lost but it seems there are too many stories going on at the same time. Now, thanks to last nights episode, I'm all worried about Jack and Juliette. Which I'm glad they finally hooked up. I guess Jack's big problem is to decide from Kate or Juliette. And Locke is still the man even if Ben is playing him for a fool. So still a good show but they need to nix some of the stories (like Hurley, Sawyer and Claire) and build on the interesting ones.

Rush Hour 3 & Hair Spray

I saw two movies in the past two weeks and they were Rush Hour 3 and Hair Spray. Rush Hour 3 was pretty good (The first being the best of the trilogy). Jackie Chan still has moves for a 90 yr. old and Chris Tucker is always funny. They do make a pretty good team. Hair Spray, on the other hand, is a guy run for cover movie. I really do enjoy musicals and I can appreciate the message but this one I wish I could take back. (I rented it for Tanya) It upset me to see John Travolta playing a very over sized woman. Which I think was just to get people out to see the movie for kicks and giggles. Other than that it was pretty well cast. But guys...skip it.

Desmond...why do you have memory loss?

I swear the last Lost episode was fluff. I mean what does Desmond having some strange memory loss have anything to do with the over all story? It was touching that he was able to finally tell Penny he loved her but can we get back to John Locke and Jacob the creepy ghost or Jack and Kate in the future? And is it me or is Sawyer...I mean James getting annoying with all the wise cracks. This is a guy who in season 1 shot a charging polar bear with a hand gun. I say "bring back the old Sawyer!"

Lost

I watched the latest episode of lost last night. I like the new characters from the boat but the flash forwards are making me loose interest in the present island adventure...that is until John Locke put a hand grenade into the mouth of the psychic, ghost talking, money hungry, Chinese guy.

Terminator: SCC & Lost

I've been watching the new series Terminator: SCC and the latest episodes of Lost these past few weeks and I have to say I've been really impressed. Terminator has really brought some big screen special effects to television and Lost is confusing as ever, but I love the flash forward new angle. I'm excited to see what comes next.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

We saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets last night and I was mildly impressed. It wasn't as good as the first one (National Treasure) and it took a while for the characters to develop the story. However, there was a pretty good chase scene and the treasure hunt is always exciting. The new bad guy was Ed Harris who plays a southerner looking for the Lost City of Gold. In order to get his help he discredits Ben Gates (Nick Cage) and his family history by depicting his great, great grandfather as a coconspiritor in the Lincoln assasination. Watch as the mystery unfolds. This movie (as did the first) makes me want to look in my gradma's attic and search for old relics. Good family flick!

I'm Lost...

On January 31st (Thursday) Lost will have a 2 hour premiere. Is it me or is every one really lost. I am excited to see the premiere even though there are only a handful of episodes thanks to the writers strike. (Just pay them what they want already!) Crazy ending on the season cliffhanger. Who left the island and who came home?

Terminator: Sarah Connor Cronicles

Well, the Terminator: SCC was awsome. It did not disappoint and I'm glad because it has a big movie franchise attached to it. It follows the story of T1 and T2 pretty well (which if you haven't seen you've been asleep for the past 20 years or you hate sci-fi). If you did miss Terminator: SCC try and catch the reruns on Fox. It is pretty rough so I would be careful to let your young teens watch it (lots of violence and strong story line).

New TV Shows

I'm interested in the new fox TV series called "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles". It seems to be after the 2nd Terminator movie skipping over the 3rd. Sarah Connor (mother of John Connor, the future's rebellion leader) is on the run with her son. Getting help from a female Terminator and trying to stop the machines from causing a nuclear holocaust. I loved all the Terminator movies so this should be one to watch. I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Honorable Mention

This BLOG is my outlet for discussing movies and television shows I've seen or would like to see. On the side are my top 10 movies and top 10 TV shows. Picking a top 10 was extremely hard for me. There are so many films and TV shows to choose from so I tried to pick some from each genre. A few that need an honorable mention but didn't make the list are "Zulu" (one of Micheal Caine's first films) and "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" (one of Sean Connery's first films). These are two of our family favorites.

"Zulu" is about a small British group of soldiers (about 300) fighting against thousands of Zulu warriors in Africa. One thing that makes this movie so interesting is that it's a true story. "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" is a fun Walt Disney movie made in Ireland. It's a story about an old Irish grounds keeper who runs into the leprechauns and earns his 3 wishes. Check them both out on IMDB.