Where has the year gone?! I can't believe it's already the end of 2013. In fact, where'd the last 1.5 months go since my last post? December FLEW by and then, to cap it, I was all confused when Christmas was and kept thinking things were a week closer than they were. No clue why. At any rate, I can't believe this year has flown by. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and he said it's been 11 months since he last saw me. My first thought was, "I was here in January!" and then went, "Oh, wait, January is next month...Yeah, that was 11 months ago. What...?" I can't believe it's 2014 in a few days! In fact, I must be really excited for 2014 because I keep wanting to write it instead of 2013. I can't say 2013 was a terrible year, but it was certainly an uneventful one for me. Not to say that's a bad thing because, goodness knows, it could have been "bad" eventful and there was none of that. So, I'm thankful for my year just to be able to say I made it another year and I've got a home, have a good standard of living, a job (albeit, I wanted to quit it several times the past year), and my family and friends are doing well. As a friend posted on FB when it was my birthday, "Congratulations on existing another year!" Made me laugh. Might be a little dire, but it's true too.
At any rate, looking forward to 2014. My middle brother and his family will be back in the States so I get to see them and a nephew I've never met! I, hopefully, will be able to attend the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on November 1st. Get to see the rest of the family and friends through the year and hope them all the best in health and happiness. I've got several (and I do mean SEVERAL) friends who are having kids in 2014 so that'll be fun to see. Some are also getting married. Chris, hopefully, will be bought out from the tempt agency he's with and hired full-time at his company (if not, he'll be looking for a new job). I, hopefully, will be getting a new job (where ever that may be). I might even work on getting my driver's license! Don't hold me to that because it has been 28 years in the making, but it's time. We'll see how that goes, though (i.e., the family members who read this, don't even mention to me I wrote this LoL). I've got some new books coming out next year I'm looking forward to and, of course, new movies to watch. I'd mention new nail polish, but I think that's a given. In addition, I plan to go on a super limited nail polish buy for 3-6 months (not a no buy because there are a few things I want, but super limited). I won't say the specific AMOUNT of polish I have acquired (gifts or personal purchases) the last 2 months, but I think it amounted to more polish than I bought the 10 months preceding it combined...To say the least, I need to clean out my polishes to make room for next year and limit my purchasing...Haven't figured out the clean out method yet, but I do plan to try and make it through a chunk of my "untrieds" next year. I also plan to save more next year. I don't have a contract with the Aquarium next year so I need to be more diligent about saving next year, especially at my salary and if I plan to go to the Breeders' Cup next year. I'm not buying a new hat next year (or very unlikely buying a new one, I do really like mine), but will get a new dress. And, lastly, I am also going to try to be better about exercising. I start and stop far too much...Granted, I stopped this last time because I injured my back. I actually worked out through the pain for 1.5 weeks and then finally it got too bad. Probably didn't help my back... :P At any rate, I'm looking forward to 2014! I do like how this started with what I was looking forward to and then dissolved to quasi-resolutions. I don't really do resolutions at the start of a new year because any time of the year should be the time to do a resolution or a change, but the new year definitely makes it nice and "neat."
The past 1.5 months has been pretty uneventful on the grand scheme of things. I did injure my back from exercising. I tell you, my back on the right side (hip bone area) does not like me and exercising. It's twice now that I've injured the same area by way of shifting something really far out of alignment. This time it was a slow move and continual pain for weeks (almost 3 weeks before I went in and only because I overdid it last week and the pain got really severe). The other time it was a sharp movement (I couldn't move or sit for a few days), but my body adjusted to it fairly quickly and was pain free (I did immediately stop exercising, though...). The chiropractic adjustment was really painful (my worst one ever), but I was pretty much okay right after it. This adjustment was painful, but I must have aggravated the tissue and ligamanets around the area much worse because I still have pretty uncomfortable pain. Two different type of exercises and different results/pain, but in the same area. Gosh dang it. I have to be more careful! I am glad I don't have the same pain level, though, and I'm off for 4-days so hopefully I'll give my back a rest. I've been working through the pain and just limiting my movements. Other than my back, my co-worker fell off a ladder trying to get his cat off his roof and fractured his foot. And then another co-worker had a family emergency for two days and then another one wasn't feeling well. I tell you, it's not been a good December for our store. Other than that, I guess it's been semi-okay (small flare-ups here-and-there) from the work angle. Personal life is pretty uneventful, except that Chris's Christmas present STILL hasn't arrived. I ordered it 20 days ago...*sigh* It didn't ship out till the 15th and it's coming from Canada...Still waiting! This Christmas, in fact, was a terrible on-line shopping experience. Not all of it to do with shipping (I do feel a little sorry for UPS/FedEx, but they should have increased hours (overtime?) if they saw the volume increased the week before Christmas), but it was crazy.
Chris and I have been watching Game of Thrones (season 1 and 2) since my boss owns the first two seasons on DVD. I've read a great deal of information about the books and know a lot of people who have read them so I knew, generally, what to expect. They've also been on my "to read" pile and actually own the first 3 or 4 (got them from a friend - haven't read them, but Chris has read at least the first one), but haven't gotten to them. So, to say the least, I knew what to expect, but I just didn't know the details. I only have 2 episodes of season 2 left to watch and I'm not sure about it...My two biggest complaints about the TV show:
1) Where is this all going? What's the purpose of everything? I'm not opposed to the meandering paths where you don't have a clear objective (e.g., Harry vanquishing Voldemort; Frodo destroying the ring; following someone's life as it unfolds; etc), but this one is a real big "what's my objective?!" In other words, what will my payoff be after I finish this series? Reading about someone's life or the people around them (e.g., Les Miserables) I can read, but there's usually a payoff at the end. This one I can't see where it's going at all and makes me sort of want to quit.
2) There's no clear protagonist or antagonist. Again, I can deal with ensemble books with lots of characters, but this one gives everyone such a flaw that you dislike them or kills off anyone remotely likeable that it makes me want to give up because I'm either scared to like someone because they might get killed or they're so stupid or mean that I just can't like them. I'm actually dreading to watch season 3 because I know 2 of the characters I like now die in season 3. I'm actually reading character synopsizes to try and find someone I can "grab hold" of for the series to keep me going. I'm sorry, but I am one of those people who DOES need a protagonist to keep me going or, again, what's my payoff at the end?
For me, those two issues are pretty big. I will say that the shows are pretty violent, but I can't say they're really any more violent then some other movies or TV shows I've watched. The nudity in the shows, though, are pretty unnecessary. They could give the impression or angle it or whatever. On the other hand, there are several prostitutes that are major characters and one character owns a brothel. Also, apparently, the books do have an abundance of sex in them so, one could say they're being "faithful" to the series. At this point, I've gotten used to the nudity. I also think HBO is doing a pretty amazing job with the sets, costumes, production, etc. They're magnificent to watch. They did not spare a penny on the show. I think the casting is pretty good too. It's hard to really say if someone is really bad given I haven't read the series, though. I do think, though, Peter Dinklage has the best character of them all. He's the only one that I can really say I like in the series and he's, technically, on the protagonist side (sort of). See, there's the problem with the characters! Chris and I have started a saying with the show, "Honor gets you killed." Because, truly, that's what happens to a lot of the characters. It may not be an immediate death, but eventually it does. Also, there are a lot of stupid characters...At any rate, I at first went, "Oh, I really need to read the series now to get more out of the characters," but now I don't know if I even want to...If there's no payoff and I go through all that reading for nothing, I will be angry. So, I might wait. We'll see. I am curious to read the first book, but I may stop after the 3rd or something (which I've been told is a good place to stop even though there are 5 books and more to come (yes, George R. R. Martin hasn't finished the series, yet)). Any way, it's definitely a perplexing series for me...I sort of want to give up because of my issues, but it's well-done....
Lots of movies since my last movie update 2 months ago -- 22 to be exact. These will mostly be short opinions because it's been a while for some and there's just a lot of them! I'll elaborate on a few that I have strong opinions about or saw recently (Lone Ranger I saw today so it's, clearly, got the longest review).
Thor: The Dark World (Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman) - Not a bad film, but not great. I don't think I liked this one as much as the first, but it's pretty on par. There's really only one scene that I REALLY liked and it involved Loki. It's a hilarious scene and everyone that I know who has seen it has also liked it too. The credit scenes at the end were okay. The first one was better and supposedly leads up to the Guardians of the Galaxy, but the 2nd and last one was just…mostly stupid. I just don't like Thor as much as Captain America. Grade: B-
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth) - This one was FAR better than the first. Much, much better. I liked the whole movie and liked it enough that I knew I wanted to own it on DVD; therefore, I went out and bought, on Black Friday, the first one. LoL You can't own the 2nd one and not the first! At any rate, it was much better. Peeta is pretty much continuously weak in the films (not the actor, the character), but whatever. The extra money for this film, I suppose, worked for the film rather than making it "over-the-top" and gratuitous. Or maybe everyone was just better situated in their roles…? Who knows. It's much better. Grade: A
The Colony (Kevin Zegers, Laurence Fishburne) - What a terribly depressing film! Definitely not what I expected. I thought it would be more about the colony trying to find others or surviving. It is about surviving, but it's much more of a survival movie from a neighboring colony. On top of it, it's a little more gruesome than I expected and it's got a rather depressing, open-ended ending! Don't recommend it… Grade: D
The Croods (Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, etc) - Not a bad 20th Century Fox animation. Not that they've had a real dud. It's cute. It's a cute film about family and the craziness that can be family. It has good animation too. Not entirely memorable as an "Animation of the Year" film, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's up for the category this year. My prediction: Monster University, The Croods, Turbo, Frozen, and a foreign animation film. Solid family film, but maybe for an older younger age. Grade: B-/C+
White House Down (Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx) - What are the odds that two similar-ish movies would come out in the same year with the White House has been taken by force? At any rate, between the two (Olympus Has Fallen) and this one, I liked this one better. It was less "serious" and pure action. Olympus Has Fallen is a little more serious and has a stricter plot line. This one is a little tongue-and-cheek so it's a little more fun to watch. Plus, it's purely about the White House and not the surrounding DC area so you don't get any "accidental" funny scenes of people running from guns…Still, not great. Grade: C
The Hangover Part III (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ed Helms, etc) - You always go into these knowing they're going to be over-the-top and silly. This was definitely silly. This one revolves more around Galifianakis's character (each one kind of revolves around one of them and the rest get dragged into it). I didn't like it as much as the first two, to be honest. I felt like this one was just overly silly…? I don't prefer Galifianakis's character in any of the films and since he's highlighted in this one, it just made it worse for me. Wouldn't recommend this. Grade: D
The Heat (Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy) - Take Miss Congeniality and smash it with McCarthy's character (or feel) from Bridesmaids and what you get is The Heat. I described this to someone who hadn't seen it yet and it makes you go, "Wha…?" at first, but then she watched it and totally agreed with me afterwards. It's an okay film. Wasn't bad. It had some funny moments, but I don't necessarily think it was better than the individual films I had just described. It's okay. Grade: C+
The Internship (Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson) - Surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be. It's not as silly or crude as you'd expect from a Vaughn/Wilson film. There's actually kind of a "nice" moment in the film and a kind of nice message about not giving up, misfits, and so forth. Still wasn't fantastic, but wasn't bad either. Grade: C
R.I.P.D. (Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds) - Just about on the edge of being a terrible movie. No wonder I had no desire to watch it in theaters and definitely no wonder it didn't do well. It was an interesting idea, but was poorly executed. Doesn't help that I'm not a huge fan of Reynolds either, but Bridges couldn't even salvage the movie. Definitely near the bottom of my least favorite films of the year. Grade: D/D-
Red 2 (Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren) - I liked the first RED movie enough that I wanted to watch the 2nd one. I liked this one too. It's about the same. It's kind of funny seeing all the characters in their "older" stages going out and kicking butt and wrecking havoc. Can't say it's really better or worse than the first since I don't remember the first all that well, but I enjoyed this enough. Grade: C
The Way, Way Back (Steve Carell, Liam James) - This is another coming of age movie and it's a decent one. I thought the acting was really good and, honestly, the poor kid! His mother seriously needs a brain and I'm glad she gets it at the end. It's a cute film. I don't think it's as good as The Kings of Summer, but it's also a little different. It's kind of weird seeing Carell as the non-family man and being a jerk. Grade: B-
2 Guns (Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg) - Not a bad film, but also predictable and kind of "crazy." I thought Wahlberg and Washington were well paired and the script worked for the both of them well. It's a little violent, but nothing too much that you wouldn't expect from an action film like this. The mystery of where the money was interesting. I will say, I refuse to watch any film Paula Patton is in anymore because I have seen her nude twice this year and that's 2 times too many! Can't she keep her clothes on?! Also explains why the Miley Cyrus/Rob Thicke thing didn't really make her comment too… Grade: C
Planes (Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, etc) - Cute. Can't say it was great, but it was cute. I enjoyed it. Decent animation. Not to the Cars standards of Pixar, but Disney did an okay job with it. Good, solid family film for almost any age. Grade: C+
Turbo (Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Samuel L. Jackson, etc) - Another good, decent animation. I thought it was cute. I can't say it was great and whole snail thing was different, but it worked the way it was. My only complaint is I didn't like Reynolds voicing the movie…It was distracting for me for whatever reason. Kind of funny given he didn't bother me in The Croods…It's a cute family film. Not as good as Monster University (I think that or Frozen will win Best Animation), but not bad. Grade: C+/B-
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, etc) - I was REALLY torn about seeing this as I've heard the stories about the author and plagiarism and such. I haven't read the books because of it, but the movie got the best of me. Not a great movie. I was rather bored through most of it, but you do see the main character grow through the film. It's maybe too long as a movie, though…I don't know. There was something "off" about the movie. Movies like this and Divergent and such, which are based off of Young Adult novels, aren't doing well this year even though they were popular in book sales. I guess not everything can be a Hunger Games and Harry Potter. Grade: D+/C-
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, etc) - Honestly, I was disappointed in 'Smaug. There were many scenes in it that weren't in the book (not a big deal), but they, unfortunately, felt like fillers to me. With that said, though I did actually think through the movie, "Filler, filler, filler…" the movie was really well-paced. For a 2:40 hour long movie, you didn't feel like you'd been sitting there that long. So, it was kind of weird to both think "filler" and, yet, enjoy the movie enough that the fillers didn't make me feel like the movie was long. With that said, this one isn't as good as the first, which isn't surprising. Also, this film made me definitely think 3 films is too much for such a short book and I haven't even seen the third movie. I'll own this and I'll watch it again, but it could have been either shorter or the series made into 2 movies. Also, for whatever reason, the special effects in this movie bothered me. They didn't feel as crisp as you'd come to expect from Peter Jackson. There were a lot of obvious green screens too. I'm not sure if it's because I saw it in 2D instead of 3D or whatever, but that was also disappointing. Grade: B
The World's End (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, etc) - I watched 97% of Sean of the Dead, but I didn't watch Hot Fuzz. So, in some way, I may have missed some nuances and inside jokes, but I liked this enough. I did feel, unfortunately, that it was Stepford Wives…That was disappointing. It was funny at times and the end was kind of weird/funny, but it was okay. I'm glad I watched it and it was fun seeing the boys reminiscence about the past. Grade: B
Elysium (Matt Damon) - Kind of a depressing end, but I guess its was one of those "for the greater good" stories. Special effects weren't bad. The story was pretty predictable, but not bad. It was okay. Grade: C+/C
Paranoia (Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, Harrison Ford, Amber Heard) - Uh. What? I actually spent more time trying to identify the cars in the movie than actually watching the movie, I think. What could have been really interesting, it was severely bland. Oldman and Ford did decent acting, but I didn't really like Hemsworth character. And it was a fight between wealthy men and one of them trying to be a wealthy man. I don't know…it was pretty stupid. Grade: D
American Hustle (Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence) - I really enjoyed American Hustle. I liked the script, acting, story, and direction. It was all well-done and pulled a fast one on you at the end if you weren't paying attention. I liked that. At its core, it is a con movie through-and-through and not just a movie about cons being caught and used to catch corrupt politicians. I also liked watching Renner's character devolve and the depths of the rest come to light. At first, everyone seems like "bad" people and you're glad they get caught, but, as the movie goes on, you get to know the reasons why and you figure out truly who is the "bad" guy and who isn't. It's got a similar flavor to Silver Linings Playbook so you could tell this was a Russell film. I'd probably own this on DVD eventually. If anything, needs a rewatch to see if you can pick up any clues for the end. Grade: A/A-
Frozen (Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, etc) - I liked Frozen! It might have been my favorite animation of the year. Disney has definitely gotten back its animation movie mojo or whatever. It was another solid effort by them. The musical numbers, I must admit, felt a little weird to me. It felt a little less like the characters singing and more like I was watching a live theater play…? I don't know. The singing in animations just feels weird to me in the recent Disney films (the love song in Tangled took me 2 or 3 views for me to feel "solid" about it), but maybe I just need to see it again. With that said, I did like most of the musical numbers. I liked the two princesses and I liked Olaf. The end was rather sappy and predictable. I kind of felt like you went on this grand adventure and then the end wrapped up SO neatly, cleanly, and quickly that it was a little bit jarring. Still like the film, though. Grade: A
Lone Ranger (Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer) - On its own, the movie isn't too bad, but as a remake, it's absolutely terrible. I will say, the trailer portrayed a cheesier movie, in my opinion. The movie actually wasn't too bad on its own if you removed yourself from every perspective of The Lone Ranger you have in your head (kind of hard to do). There were some things I really didn't like (the slaughtering (and that's what it really was in a "family movie" appropriate manner) of the Comanche, for one), but the fight scenes were okay. The acting wasn't too bad. The comedy wasn't too bad and actually made me chuckle. Unfortunately, the script was rather bad. Hammer wasn't a terrible John Reid, but he came off more "silly" and "green" than Tonto. And the movie is quasi from Tonto's perspective, but, truly, he's just the story-teller. My BIGGEST complaint, there was NOT enough Silver in the movie! And where Silver was doing cool stuff, it was CG (not surprising). It needed more Silver...My other complaint is you could 100% tell this was an attempt to gain the Pirates of the Caribbean glory days. Gore Verbinski directed PotC and he directed this. Not to mention Jerry Bruckheimer (PotC producer) and Hans Zimmer (composer for PotC 2 and 3) were also involved. In fact, one song in Lone Ranger reminded me a little of PotC and there are two characters that rob the civilians and are caught in women dresses or with umbrellas (remind you of a certain pair from PotC? Though, not same actors). So, that was a little weird. I will say, I really like the soundtrack. It's not what you'd expect from Zimmer or for the movie, but it all works. The Finale song based on William Tell's overture is amazing. I don't think it's purely William Tell. I do think Zimmer adds his own into it to work better with the movie, but it's great and a lot of the classic. Besides the "Finale," "Silver" is my favorite song. The end of the song is so beautiful and emotional. In all, if you ignore the fact it's a remake and don't mind the terrible script, it's an okay movie (i.e., thank you action scenes for saving it!). If you factor in the remake, it's absolutely terrible. Grade: C (I liked the action scenes and soundtrack or C-/D+ for remake)
With those 22 movies, I have watched 109 movies this year! I might see one more this weekend given I've got Sat/Sun off with Chris, but we'll see. I will say it was kind of a dud movie year, but I'll go through everything on my movie recap of 2013.
With 4 days left of the year, I'm going to try and read 2 more books. I'm 2 books away from matching last year's 68 count. Granted, I count rereads, but only rereads if I read the ENTIRE book again. Still, for whatever reason, I've been sluggish the end of this year (especially December). I've got books I want to read, but I just can't get myself to actually READ them. Ugh. I have been watching a lot of stuff, but I always take time to read and...I don't know. Weird. Hoping next year is better for the reading, but I should get going to trying to finish 2 books in 4 days. :)
Hope everyone has a good start to the new year!
