...And so expensive.
Tickets, clothing, travel expense, etc, etc. Not to mention the urge to buy a new digital camera so I can have AMAZING photos of the races. I almost got a new digital camera a few years ago (a DSLR camera), but opted against it. My digital camera did okay last year. It wasn't bad, but I didn't always get "crisp" photos because I zoomed so much. Sometimes it's just needed, especially on the back stretch when you want the entire field and you're standing on the rail. Oh man, I can't wait for that. It was FANTASTIC watching the races on the back stretch. You can actually hear the horses running by and see them without a sea of people in front of you...So excited. At any rate, no new camera. I just can't splurge THAT much, but I am going to bring BOTH digital camera batteries. I took so many photos and video that I could barely even photo the final race because my battery died and then I used my phone for some photos, which almost killed my phone battery. So...This year...Both camera batteries AND I know that Santa Anita has horrible cell reception so I won't even bother with my phone and won't need it for a camera. I'm excited! I do need to figure out my shoes...I bought a pair of shoes (relatively cheap at $10) because the PERFECT pair of shoes I found (they match my hat!) weren't available in any of the stores. I came home, looked them up, and found a pair available on-line, but shipping and cost, they come to about $22. Do I really need the perfect pair of shoes for my hat or should I stay with my "workable" shoes, which work with everything, but aren't "perfect"? I've got about a week to decide if the extra money is worth it or not. The tickets arrived, though, and I got my cardigan for my dress and plane ticket. So...It's coming together! It's going to be good. :)
In the mean time, I'm taking a non-credit certificate program for grant writing at Oregon State University. OSU offers the class through the university, but there's an organization that actually sets up the class. I had a really difficult time paying for the class because of my lack of reading and being tired (tip: don't pay for things when you're really, really tired...), but I FINALLY got the class paid for and I'm taking it (honestly, for a digital class, my payment difficulties seemed absolutely ridiculous). It's been interesting. I never realized how much work really goes into grant writing. Wow! To be really prepared, it's nuts! Then again, a lot of the work is just getting your end of things in order (statements, etc), but knowing what materials the potential funder needs/wants will definitely take time. Also, finding funders will take time and shouldn't be kept to just internet searching. At any rate, just 3 weeks into the class, but it's interesting. The only thing that determines if you get the certificate is your final so I'm not always doing all the assignments, but I am making sure I do the quizzes (only 5 questions) and doing all the reading. I am reading my fellow classmates discussion stuff too.
Work's been an interesting roller coaster this week...Can't really say much about it, but it's been interesting...In the end, things are pretty much the same. It was a long week and a week I seemed to be tired everyday. Oh well. Continuing my job search, tyvm...
With that, movies! I actually watched a movie I rather liked this week.
The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire) - It's been a long time since I've read Gatsby, so it's hard for me to
compare it to what the book is. It does make me want to break out my AP
English notes when I read the book my junior year in high school. I will
say, I'm a little disappointed in it. Baz Luhrmann (Australia, Moulin
Rouge, Romeo & Juliet, Strictly Ballroom) is known for being opulent
and over the top and the trailer showed this opulence. It's definitely opulent
and over the top, but it gets bogged down in the sad moments and mostly
just ends up being rather depressing and misses the interest of the
book. I may not remember the book, but I don't remember hating it or
finding it boring (we read it in 9 days -- a chapter a day). It sort of drags in certain
scenes too. I at first thought Maguire was a good Nick and Mulligan a
good Daisy, but I'm not so sure now. DiCaprio was a decent Gatsby. I
liked him a little less the more I watched. He isn't bad and, in ways,
sort of saves the movie, but I guess I felt like it was too "expected"
of DiCaprio? Joel Edgerton who plays Tom was good, though. I wish Baz had
just gone all the way, I suppose, with his vision of the film. The music
in the beginning was kind of weird too. I like the Florence + the
Machine song (of course) and I do enjoy the "party" song, but some of the rest just didn't work as well. At any rate, I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I'd readily recommend it. Grade: C
Redemption (Jason Statham, Agata Buzek) - Predictable and kind of funny since he ends up falling with a nun, but the movie doesn't have a happily-ever-after ending and the middle of it is the only non-depressing part of the movie. The rest of it is rather dower. Wasn't a bad Statham film, though. I've seen worse. I did sort of like the redemption part of it, but the end kind of threw it out of the window too. Grade: C
Fill the Void (Hadas Yaron, Yiftach Klein) - I'm still a little confused by the movie. I liked it, but the falling-or-each other part was a little mystifying to me. I'm not in doubt at the end that they truly love each other, but I am a little mystified how it happened. I know part of it is the family connection, but it was a little odd in that sense. With that said, I liked the movie. There's something about it that works. It's gentle, not pushy, artsy, and, yet, is a movie that everyone can understand even though it's set within a very orthodox Hasidic Jewish community. Family obligations and wanting to be loved are not things that religion or nationality discriminate against. Arranged marriages are going out the door, but this didn't feel the same like you normally see. Glad I watched it, but not sure how often I would recommend it. It's one of those foreign films not many people will watch. Grade: B-
The Kings of Summer (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias) - I adored this. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It has a somewhat flavor as Moonrise Kingdom (the running away from your weird family and living off the land) or even Stand By Me, but this was about growing up, finding who you are, independence, friendship, family, and summer. I really liked it. The part I did NOT enjoy -- I have to mention this for my animal rights friends -- is the killing, skinning, and eating of a rabbit. I did not enjoy that scene and it IS the only incident and it's a relatively important scene, but it bothered me. It is frivolous and silly and could have been better, but I still liked it. Grade: B
Imposter (Documentary) - I'm not sure why I wanted to watch this, but watch it I did. It leaves an interesting opening at the end about the family. I thought it was a good documentary that showed everything that happened, all the speculations, and the final outcome. It was played out to be a bit of a mystery with the family and how they were so convinced that their son had returned. It's just not my normal thing to watch and I was a little bored through it... Grade: C+
This is the End (Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill) - What in the world?! I knew it was going to be absolutely ridiculous and far beyond ridiculous with some laughs thrown in and maybe some other bad humor jokes; it met all those expectations, but I still at the end went, "What in the world?!" I think the best thing about the movie is how how the actors play their named selves, but they're playing different versions of themselves. Because they're playing different versions of themselves, there are a lot of jokes that revolve around their previous acting gigs. Like they poke fun at Emma Watson playing Hermione and James Franco in 127 Hours or the ones in Pineapple Express. There are a lot of cameos by various actors/singers, which was kind of fun to see. Knowing what these actors had played in does help you a little in getting some of the jokes. With that said, this movie was absolutely ridiculous and almost sacrilege! Though, the end with the Backstreet Boys in Heaven was rather hilarious. I did enjoy that, but the rest of it is not my thing. Grade: C- (for the laughs)
Dredd (Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby) - My housemate watched it and liked it (he's a comic book fan). It came out on DVD earlier this year and I contemplated renting it, but ended up not. My co-worker recently watched it and absolutely enjoyed it so I decided to watch it because it's streaming everywhere now (Netflix and Amazon Prime). I liked it! I think it's just about the perfect length (1.5 hours) and I think Urban did a good Dredd. I also liked the evolution of Thirlby's Judge Anderson. It is rather violent and bloody, but it's not more than like Wanted. I thought it was better than it's been given credit for and I wouldn't mind seeing a Dredd 2, but I don't know if that'll happen since it didn't do very well in theaters. It's not quite a movie I would want to own, but it is available on streaming and I think, at some point, I would watch it again. Grade: C+/B-
Just 18 more movies to 100!
Friday, October 4, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Fall TV shows...Thanks Hulu?
For whatever reason, during my time in grad school, I started watching a LOT of TV shows. I was keeping up on something like 20 shows during the Fall season. That's nuts! I kept up with them really well until last Fall. For whatever reason, I lost interest. Shows I had watched seasons on end, I just lost interest in watching. I thought it was just the fall. I got behind and it's hard catching up on so many TV shows once you fall behind. I thought I'd catch up again during the winter. It didn't happen. Then I thought I'd catch up and keep up with the summer shows. It didn't happen. So...Here is the start to another fall season. I had no hopes in keeping up, but who knows...Well, week 1 of fall season is in the history books and I've watched all of 3 fall shows already! How have I done this? All thanks to Hulu...
I've kept my subscription with them all this time. So far, it's been the most useful $8/month for a digital service. Netflix is nice and all to get the DVDs if you want them, but since I keep up with new movies and not old ones, I have no need for Netflix's DVD mail service. Redbox works fine for that. Since I don't stream movies that often anyway, Netflix and Redbox instant are not necessary and if I do want to watch an old streaming video at random, I've got AmazonPrime. I utilize AmazonPrime for the 2-day shipping, not the Instant, which puts me into the "fringe benefit" category of Amazon instant. So, in all, Hulu has been the best $8/month for me. I'm mostly paying for the service because I can watch Hulu on my iPad or iPhone anywhere, which is worth it to me. I don't really pay for cable TV (my TV hasn't been hooked up in 1.5 years and we pay the BASIC TV channels so I would get like 15 channels -- only wanted the internet, really) so the $8/month makes up for that.
Since many shows are streaming on Hulu, I can watch them the next day on Hulu! USA Network is still behind on shows (like a week or so) and that's annoying, but at least the rest I can watch right away. I will say, Hulu needs to do more commercials, though. The fact I got the Subway $5 sub song in my head after one night of watching 3 shows means they played it way too much! At any rate, this season is all about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dracula (starts in Oct), and Sleepy Hollow for me. I will look into Almost Human, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ironside, Masterchef Junior, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (really doubtful about this), Reign, The Blacklist, The Crazy Ones, and The Tomorrow People. Of the latter list, mostly The Crazy Ones and The Blacklist I'm looking forward to watching. This past week was the "official" start to fall TV shows, but next week is the really BIG week for shows to start.
This week I watched only Bones, Ironside (early pilot release on Hulu), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Sleepy Hollow. Ironside will be interesting, I guess. I know it's been called a procedural crime-drama, but the creators are saying it's going to be character driven by Ironside who is a wheelchair bound detective. First one was okay. We'll see. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace comedy so think The Office, but a police station instead. They quasi-solve crimes during the half-hour too. First one wasn't too bad. Not sure how much I'll keep up with it. I'm not a big comedy fan, so we'll see. Sleepy Hollow was interesting. They have an interesting premise, but we'll see the direction they take with it. I'm mostly worried the main story will drag on forever. My thought is they'll finish the main story this season and pick up another next, but we don't know, yet. The premise, at this point, is with the four horsemen and Revelations from the Bible. Should be interesting. Pilot wasn't bad, but we'll see.
I've noticed there are fewer crime-dramas and more period or fantasy shows (e.g., Dracula, Reign, Almost Human, etc). Sure, some of them are also crime shows like The Blacklist or Ironside, but you definitely don't see as many as you did 3 years ago. Some were cancelled after last season (e.g., Body of Proof, The Glades, CSI: NY, etc), but I think with the popularity of Once Upon a Time, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, etc, we're heading towards more "edgy" and character driven TV shows (The Blacklist and last year's The Following are prime examples of "edgy" crime-dramas). Not to mention the popularity of throwing old into the new (e.g., Sleepy Hollow). We're also looking for the next "sci-fi" show. Fringe concluded last season and no one has been able to replace Lost. Revolution seems to be going okay. I started it last year and never made it past the 2nd episode (not on purpose). I stopped trying after I made it through some other sci-fi show and they cancelled it!
I am hoping there are some shows this season where I really like them because not a lot carried over from last year and shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, CSI, etc are becoming "old" and every season that passes makes me nervous they'll be cancelled soon. I still haven't recovered from Numb3rs ending. One of my favorite shows and I still rewatch the entire show yearly. At any rate, we'll see how the fall season goes!
In other news, Monday is my presentation for the Aquarium. Should go well. After that, I'm pretty much finished. Reading is going up and down in weird spikes...I think I'm simply adrift right now on what to read...I've tried rereading old books, tried new ones, tried anthologies, etc. It's been a weird reading week...and it's not like I don't want to read anything; I just can't find anything I really want to read? Weird.
Movies! Lots of movies this week I wanted to see...
Epic (Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, etc) - Decent animation. Not the most original of stories. At least it wasn't Fern Gully or anything. It's not the most happiest of endings...Or, in general. I mean, it starts off kind of sad and then sure, everything is saved, but the two main characters have an awkward "happily ever after" story...I don't know. It wasn't the greatest animation story. There are some slightly funny parts that are alluded more towards adults, but it's a forgettable movie. I will ask one thing...Why is it when you have "little" people type movies (i.e., fairies) the soundtracks always take on a Gaelic sound to it? Must be the folklore origination. I like it, but it's kind of interesting. Grade: C
The Bling Ring (Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, etc) -Wow, this was really boring. I thought it was going to be more interesting, but after watching it after World War Z and just watching it in general, it was really boring. I'm not sure it gets across the point it was trying to make either. Most people's worries is it was going to glorify the crimes and it kind of does...? I don't know. They didn't get hit with a super harsh punishment for as much as they stole. I did think Katie Chang was a good actress. I didn't really like Watson in this. I've liked her in every film I've watched of hers, but this one didn't really do it for me. Maybe it was the role...She comes off pretentious and fake and that is her character. Hm. Maybe it was good acting...? At any rate, it was really a dud of a film and I don't think it got anything across at all. Definite waste of time to watch. I learned more from Googling the crimes than the movie. Grade: D
World War Z (Brad Pitt) - Wasn't sure about this, but it actually lived up to expectations and maybe even surprised me by how much I actually enjoyed it. It's not great, though, and fighting zombies wasn't the point of the movie (not that I wanted it to be about fighting zombies). The point of the movie is Pitt's character is trying to find how it started (patient zero) and, in the process, comes up with an idea to "camouflage" healthy humans from being attacked by zombies. In ways, it's more "scientific" than action. It's like if you watched Contagion, but instead the virus turns you into a zombie. It wasn't a bad movie on its own, but it wasn't great either. It sort of just passed the time and sent you on a world trip (starts in PA, takes you to NJ, then S Korea, Israel, Wales, and Nova Scotia). I will say, after recently watching Oblivion and watching World War Z, between Pitt and Cruise, I prefer Pitt as an actor. Grade: C (perhaps C+ purely because I liked it more than I thought I would)
Disconnect (Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard, etc) - What an oddly depressing and interesting movie. The premise is how the internet disconnects us from ourselves and, at the same time, shows how destructive it can be to those around us (and further disconnects us). They're interconnecting stories (some more than others) and is along the lines of Crash. I liked Crash. I know there are many who don't, but I like the interconnecting stories. This one does it too, but it has a majority of depressing stories. The acting was good and the cast of actors I enjoyed. Obviously, the Internet doesn't have to lead to any of the things it caused in the movie, but you can also see it staring at us too. It is a little dramatic and stylized. The end kind of dragged on as everyone's consequences finally come to head. I admit I was so bored with the ending I actually fast forwarded through parts of it because it was so slow. It's not like you couldn't see any of them coming to light a mile away. It's interesting and good acting, but the story does drag and is a little shallow. Grade: C
Bless Me, Ultima (Luke Ganalon, Miriam Colon, Benito Martinez) - Had to watch this since I liked the book when I read it as a sophomore in high school. I think Ganalon did a good acting job, but there also wasn't a lot for him to "act" too. He does a lot of "staring" and contemplation when things occur around him. I thought Colon was a good Ultima. I read one review where they thought the movie doesn't have the same "punch" as the book, but if you read the book, you'd probably enjoy the movie more. I think I'm definitely in that category. I think if you hadn't read the book, the movie will seem less interesting and make you lose the deeper intrigue in the book. At the heart of the book or movie is a coming of age story, but it also debates mysticism and religion. I think it really touches the surface of the book in that regard. With that said, I thought the movie was well done from my perspective. I enjoyed it and glad I watched it. I wish it was a little deeper, but you can't expect that in a movie. Grade: C+/B-
Based on my rough count, looks like I'll make 100 movies by the end of the year and that's not including watching any in theater. It'll all come down to when they show up at RedBox.
Here's my rough estimate:
Now I'm off to paint my nails... :)
I've kept my subscription with them all this time. So far, it's been the most useful $8/month for a digital service. Netflix is nice and all to get the DVDs if you want them, but since I keep up with new movies and not old ones, I have no need for Netflix's DVD mail service. Redbox works fine for that. Since I don't stream movies that often anyway, Netflix and Redbox instant are not necessary and if I do want to watch an old streaming video at random, I've got AmazonPrime. I utilize AmazonPrime for the 2-day shipping, not the Instant, which puts me into the "fringe benefit" category of Amazon instant. So, in all, Hulu has been the best $8/month for me. I'm mostly paying for the service because I can watch Hulu on my iPad or iPhone anywhere, which is worth it to me. I don't really pay for cable TV (my TV hasn't been hooked up in 1.5 years and we pay the BASIC TV channels so I would get like 15 channels -- only wanted the internet, really) so the $8/month makes up for that.
Since many shows are streaming on Hulu, I can watch them the next day on Hulu! USA Network is still behind on shows (like a week or so) and that's annoying, but at least the rest I can watch right away. I will say, Hulu needs to do more commercials, though. The fact I got the Subway $5 sub song in my head after one night of watching 3 shows means they played it way too much! At any rate, this season is all about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dracula (starts in Oct), and Sleepy Hollow for me. I will look into Almost Human, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ironside, Masterchef Junior, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (really doubtful about this), Reign, The Blacklist, The Crazy Ones, and The Tomorrow People. Of the latter list, mostly The Crazy Ones and The Blacklist I'm looking forward to watching. This past week was the "official" start to fall TV shows, but next week is the really BIG week for shows to start.
This week I watched only Bones, Ironside (early pilot release on Hulu), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Sleepy Hollow. Ironside will be interesting, I guess. I know it's been called a procedural crime-drama, but the creators are saying it's going to be character driven by Ironside who is a wheelchair bound detective. First one was okay. We'll see. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a workplace comedy so think The Office, but a police station instead. They quasi-solve crimes during the half-hour too. First one wasn't too bad. Not sure how much I'll keep up with it. I'm not a big comedy fan, so we'll see. Sleepy Hollow was interesting. They have an interesting premise, but we'll see the direction they take with it. I'm mostly worried the main story will drag on forever. My thought is they'll finish the main story this season and pick up another next, but we don't know, yet. The premise, at this point, is with the four horsemen and Revelations from the Bible. Should be interesting. Pilot wasn't bad, but we'll see.
I've noticed there are fewer crime-dramas and more period or fantasy shows (e.g., Dracula, Reign, Almost Human, etc). Sure, some of them are also crime shows like The Blacklist or Ironside, but you definitely don't see as many as you did 3 years ago. Some were cancelled after last season (e.g., Body of Proof, The Glades, CSI: NY, etc), but I think with the popularity of Once Upon a Time, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, etc, we're heading towards more "edgy" and character driven TV shows (The Blacklist and last year's The Following are prime examples of "edgy" crime-dramas). Not to mention the popularity of throwing old into the new (e.g., Sleepy Hollow). We're also looking for the next "sci-fi" show. Fringe concluded last season and no one has been able to replace Lost. Revolution seems to be going okay. I started it last year and never made it past the 2nd episode (not on purpose). I stopped trying after I made it through some other sci-fi show and they cancelled it!
I am hoping there are some shows this season where I really like them because not a lot carried over from last year and shows like Bones, Criminal Minds, CSI, etc are becoming "old" and every season that passes makes me nervous they'll be cancelled soon. I still haven't recovered from Numb3rs ending. One of my favorite shows and I still rewatch the entire show yearly. At any rate, we'll see how the fall season goes!
In other news, Monday is my presentation for the Aquarium. Should go well. After that, I'm pretty much finished. Reading is going up and down in weird spikes...I think I'm simply adrift right now on what to read...I've tried rereading old books, tried new ones, tried anthologies, etc. It's been a weird reading week...and it's not like I don't want to read anything; I just can't find anything I really want to read? Weird.
Movies! Lots of movies this week I wanted to see...
Epic (Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, etc) - Decent animation. Not the most original of stories. At least it wasn't Fern Gully or anything. It's not the most happiest of endings...Or, in general. I mean, it starts off kind of sad and then sure, everything is saved, but the two main characters have an awkward "happily ever after" story...I don't know. It wasn't the greatest animation story. There are some slightly funny parts that are alluded more towards adults, but it's a forgettable movie. I will ask one thing...Why is it when you have "little" people type movies (i.e., fairies) the soundtracks always take on a Gaelic sound to it? Must be the folklore origination. I like it, but it's kind of interesting. Grade: C
The Bling Ring (Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson, etc) -Wow, this was really boring. I thought it was going to be more interesting, but after watching it after World War Z and just watching it in general, it was really boring. I'm not sure it gets across the point it was trying to make either. Most people's worries is it was going to glorify the crimes and it kind of does...? I don't know. They didn't get hit with a super harsh punishment for as much as they stole. I did think Katie Chang was a good actress. I didn't really like Watson in this. I've liked her in every film I've watched of hers, but this one didn't really do it for me. Maybe it was the role...She comes off pretentious and fake and that is her character. Hm. Maybe it was good acting...? At any rate, it was really a dud of a film and I don't think it got anything across at all. Definite waste of time to watch. I learned more from Googling the crimes than the movie. Grade: D
World War Z (Brad Pitt) - Wasn't sure about this, but it actually lived up to expectations and maybe even surprised me by how much I actually enjoyed it. It's not great, though, and fighting zombies wasn't the point of the movie (not that I wanted it to be about fighting zombies). The point of the movie is Pitt's character is trying to find how it started (patient zero) and, in the process, comes up with an idea to "camouflage" healthy humans from being attacked by zombies. In ways, it's more "scientific" than action. It's like if you watched Contagion, but instead the virus turns you into a zombie. It wasn't a bad movie on its own, but it wasn't great either. It sort of just passed the time and sent you on a world trip (starts in PA, takes you to NJ, then S Korea, Israel, Wales, and Nova Scotia). I will say, after recently watching Oblivion and watching World War Z, between Pitt and Cruise, I prefer Pitt as an actor. Grade: C (perhaps C+ purely because I liked it more than I thought I would)
Disconnect (Jason Bateman, Paula Patton, Alexander Skarsgard, etc) - What an oddly depressing and interesting movie. The premise is how the internet disconnects us from ourselves and, at the same time, shows how destructive it can be to those around us (and further disconnects us). They're interconnecting stories (some more than others) and is along the lines of Crash. I liked Crash. I know there are many who don't, but I like the interconnecting stories. This one does it too, but it has a majority of depressing stories. The acting was good and the cast of actors I enjoyed. Obviously, the Internet doesn't have to lead to any of the things it caused in the movie, but you can also see it staring at us too. It is a little dramatic and stylized. The end kind of dragged on as everyone's consequences finally come to head. I admit I was so bored with the ending I actually fast forwarded through parts of it because it was so slow. It's not like you couldn't see any of them coming to light a mile away. It's interesting and good acting, but the story does drag and is a little shallow. Grade: C
Bless Me, Ultima (Luke Ganalon, Miriam Colon, Benito Martinez) - Had to watch this since I liked the book when I read it as a sophomore in high school. I think Ganalon did a good acting job, but there also wasn't a lot for him to "act" too. He does a lot of "staring" and contemplation when things occur around him. I thought Colon was a good Ultima. I read one review where they thought the movie doesn't have the same "punch" as the book, but if you read the book, you'd probably enjoy the movie more. I think I'm definitely in that category. I think if you hadn't read the book, the movie will seem less interesting and make you lose the deeper intrigue in the book. At the heart of the book or movie is a coming of age story, but it also debates mysticism and religion. I think it really touches the surface of the book in that regard. With that said, I thought the movie was well done from my perspective. I enjoyed it and glad I watched it. I wish it was a little deeper, but you can't expect that in a movie. Grade: C+/B-
Based on my rough count, looks like I'll make 100 movies by the end of the year and that's not including watching any in theater. It'll all come down to when they show up at RedBox.
Here's my rough estimate:
- Fill the Void
- Great Gatsby
- Imposter
- The Kings of Summer
- Redemption
- This is the End
- After Earth
- The Colony
- 2 Guns
- Before Midnight
- The Croods
- Elysium
- Hangover Part III
- Heat
- The Internship
- Lone Ranger
- Immortal Instruments: City of Bones
- Paranoia
- Planes
- RIPD
- Red 2
- Turbo
- White House Down
Now I'm off to paint my nails... :)
Saturday, September 14, 2013
To new beginnings!
Okay, I think I've properly mourned the loss of my Xanga site (after writing my "ordeal" post)... :P I've got a new blog title (I've always liked the word "abode") and I've got the "updated" version of my former background (kid not, DigitalBlasphemy updated the background picture I was using). So...To new beginnings! I suppose it's fitting that I changed things when it's the 10-year anniversary of my blog...
Anyway, I'm in the final, final stages of my Aquarium report. I present in a little over a week and then it's whatever that needs to be changed from the presentation and then I'm finished! Yay! Feels kind of weird to think I won't have any other "work" hanging over my head after I get home from work.
Cooking hasn't been happening the last few weeks. I worked a 7-day workweek and was tired from those days. Then the next week was crazy and then I had a 4-day weekend. I spent the weekend relaxing to the fullest! I really needed those 4-days off. I was exhausted and just not handling work well. I feel better at work now. Still haven't gotten back to cooking, but hopefully I'll get back to it at some point.
Health wise...it's been a weird year. I don't have health insurance right now, but I'm thinking of signing up for next year. Not because of Obamacare, but I have a feeling I might need some expensive tests if I can't get my heart palpitations under control. I had a dizzy, lightheaded spell a few weeks ago and it's gone, but they lingered for days afterwards. They weren't nearly as bad as the first few days (the first day, I was in bed most of it because I was so dizzy), but it was enough to make me feel ill for a week. Not sure if they were connected, but after that, my heart palpitations were really bad. Since then, they've calmed down some, but I still get them almost daily. Some are worse than others. They did stop a good month or so, but I'm not sure what caused them to stop. I think a good part of it is my diet. They stopped around the time I was cooking so maybe it has something to do with salt content, but I'm not sure. Exercise helps, of course, and I don't have them during the exercise, but I still get them afterwards. Who knows! I'm watching it.
My heel spurs also came back during my 7-day workweek. They're slowly going away. They're so annoying! You never appreciate your shoes more than when you can't walk without them...I just need to remember to stretch. Heel spurs you can't really get rid of (they're a bony protrusion in your heel), but you can keep them under control through stretching and other exercises. Heel spurs flare up when the tendon on the bottom of your foot flares up and gets irritated further by the spur. It's a lot like biting your cheek and then you keep biting your cheek because it's flared up. If my tendon is irritated it, it rubs against the spur, and the spur irritates it more. Stretching helps keep the tendon from getting irritated.
I get the weird things, don't I? At least my chest sebaceous cyst is still gone, even if it itches sometimes and has left a weird "scar." :)
Kodie (my cat) had quite an ordeal the last few weeks. She was scratching and licking a lot, but we just thought she was allergic to something (her food kept changing). Then, I found a flea on me in bed. Ew! None of the animals are outdoor, but it doesn't mean we couldn't have brought them in. Her scratching and licking got REALLY bad. So bad, she removed almost all the base fur on her back near the base of her tail (looks like someone who is bald and is trying to hide the bald patches). She was also licking a spot on her back leg so much, she was licking it raw and creating a wound. So, we decided to put her soft cone on her to get her to stop licking the spot on her leg. All the licking was causing her to throw up a lot too. In the 2 years beforehand, she threw up 3 times. In just 3 days, she threw up 4 times. That's how much fur she was licking off herself. So...the cone went on, which meant I haven't slept well in a week. She had the cone for 3 or 4 days and since she couldn't lick, she was scratching a LOT and she kept scratching at her neck (where the cone was) and so she'd hit the cone and it'd make an annoying, loud noise. And then she'd want to lick, so she'd lick the cone, which made an annoying, loud noise. Yeah, she was kicked out of the room a lot. FINALLY got her Advantage and put it on her yesterday. In 24 hours, you can see the difference. She's not itching as much and the cone stopped her habit of licking. She seems far more comfortable now. I know she's still going to pull fur out because she's covered in scabs, but I'm hoping the fleas were the problem and not an allergy. We didn't put Advantage on the rabbits, so we'll see. She's currently sleeping in my trashcan. LoL My FULL trashcan. What a weird cat...
Anyway, to the large movie update I said that needed to be completed. This is a good week since there are no new movies I've watched and there are several coming out next week. Most opinions are going to be short since it's been a while since I've seen some of these and there's so many of them.
Mud (Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon) - There's been talk about McConaughey getting an Oscar nod for Mud (maybe not the short list, but it comes up in conversation). He's the title role and it's an interesting, albeit slow movie. It's about growing up and relationships (or love). I wouldn't recommend it for everyone as it is slow, but I thought the acting was good. It's kind of nice to see McConaughey in a different role, though. The boys were also really good. Grade: B
Olympus Has Fallen (Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman) - Full of cliches and Chris and I laughed a lot in this movie. First off, you know this is going to be an over-the-top action film and it is, but there are just funny scenes in it (like the lady who's running away from the Washington Monument as it's collapsing). The other funny thing is Freeman isn't the POTUS! What...?! Well, he's Speaker of the House and the actual POTUS (Eckhart) is basically kidnapped so...Freeman is acting POTUS! LoL The other laughable thing was it was Koreans who attacked the nation and kidnapped the President. At first, you're made to believe it's S. Koreans, but then you find out it's really a guy who's infiltrated the SKoreans and he's rooting for the NKoreans. Chris and I both went, "What?! It's Koreans?!" Both being Korean, it was funny to us. When was the last time you saw the US attacked by Koreans in a movie?! At any rate, it was a good rental, action movie, but we laughed a lot (non-intentional laughs) too. Grade: C
Bullet to the Head (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa) - What did I watch...? It wasn't bad, but it is a Stallone film. Basically a bad guy and a good guy get together to defeat a badder guy. Really, is there anything else to say? It's subpar. Grade: C-
42 (Chadwick Boseman) - My main impression of this film is...It's the baseball equivalent of Remember the Titans. It's feel-good, decent story, decent acting, and gives you a happy feeling when you finish watching it. Wasn't a bad movie. Not the most "action" packed or even riveting film, but it was decent and, in a subpar year for me, it stood out for being better than the average. Grade: B
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf) - Redford and LaBeouf...What an odd pair. Not a bad film, but definitely lacks in something...Story...? Directing...? Not sure. Chris and I chuckled because Big Sur makes an appearance because it's a location for drug smuggling. The story has a somewhat quasi "mystery" in it from these radicals (Redford) while the news reporter (LaBeouf) tries to fish out the history and mysteries, but it's just...not that interesting? Definitely a forgettable movie (I wouldn't even remember the movie if it wasn't for remembering the actors). Grade: C
The Big Wedding (Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, etc) - Rom-com that's almost more drama than rom-com. It's more reminiscent of It's Complicated or Something's Gotta Give (e.g., the story is more about the older actors than the younger ones). Unfortunately, it's not as funny or endearing as Something's Gotta Give. The story gets bogged down by the triangle and everyone's personal issues. It's not bad, but it's definitely not as good as it could have been given the cast. Grade: C
Kick-Ass 2 (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) - Not as good as the first one. It's more violent than the first, but it's not like "overly violent," I guess. I don't know. It's just not as good as the first one. I was disappointed in it. Grade: C
Emperor (Matthew Fox, Tommy Lee Jones) - I need to check the historical accuracy of the movie, but I didn't think it was that bad. The love story for Fox was a little cumbersome, but I got why they did it too. I thought Jones was a good MacArthur. It is an interesting period of history that you don't hear a lot. I don't think I realized how tenuous it was for the Emperor of Japan and being tried for war crimes or the implications it could have had. I didn't think it was too bad, but Fox's love story does bog it down. Grade: C+
Trance (James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson) - I really liked this movie. The problem with it and the ability to recommend it to others is it deserves its rating (rated R). It eliminates most people I know who would want to see it and, as a psycho-thriller, it's a good psycho-thriller! It has a pretty violent scene (with a mostly gross violent part -- seeing someone's face shot off talking (part of the psycho-thriller part)) and there's a full frontal nude scene from the female. Granted, the nude scene is short and serves a purpose, but I don't think they had to write that entire plot point into the movie. Then again, it also tracks along to who McAvoy's character is (art dealer). Like I said, though, it didn't need to be in there, but it does make some sense (in the end -- back to the psycho-thriller part). At any rate, I like psycho-thrillers. They tend to be mind-bending and require the watcher's full attention and I like the twists. This one had TWISTS. I knew one twist, but I didn't know the 2nd one. I think if I had paid more attention, I would have figured out the major twist, but I wasn't watching as closely as I should have. It was interesting, though, and left a slightly open ending (kind of like Inception). Decent acting, decent script, but it's not entirely original either... Just a shame it's really rated R. Grade: B/B-
Amour (Jean-Lous Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva) - FINALLY got to watch this! It's been months since the Oscars. It's a slow movie and the captions don't help either in making the movie speed up, but it is so heart-wrenching and endearing...It's such a touching story of love, commitment, and responsibility. If it doesn't pull your heart strings, you're heartless. It is rather depressing, though. Chris kept saying, "Why are you watching this? It's depressing." It's depressing, but tender too. The ending is kind of up for debate on whether you agree or not, but you also can see why he did what he did. In his mind, it was an act of love, respect, and mercy. Grade: B+/A-
Pain and Gain (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johsnon, Anthony Mackie) - Crime comedy...? Dramedy? Something along those lines...The movie is both "serious" as it's based off a true story, but also pokes fun at itself the whole way through. The weirdest thing for me was seeing Whalberg so ripped...Weird. It's well acted, but it's silly so you can't take it serious. At the end of it, you just went, "Are those people really that dumb?!" Yeah...Wouldn't recommend for most people. Grade: C
Oblivion (Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko) - I'm not sure if I really liked this movie or not. I did guess most of the "twists" in it. It was entertaining. I'm not a huge Cruise fan, but it worked. Good special effects. Good acting. Okay script/story. Eh. It was kind of what I expected. Grade: C+/B-
The Place Beyond the Pines (Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper) - Kind of a tedious script as it spans 2 generations and tried to get across I think too many points, but I don't think it was too bad. If anything, it's an interesting look at what our consequences can do for years down the road (the main point I took away). Not bad. Not great. Good acting, though, I think Gosling tends to pick his films pretty well. Grade: C+
Well...With that...I'm up to 72 watched movies for the year! 28 more to make 100 and 16-ish weeks left of the year. Hm. We'll see! I've got 4 movies I want to see that are coming to RedBox this coming week. After that, we'll see. It'll depend a lot on when summer movies come out. I'm also reading a lot again. Still haven't read anything that says instantly "new love!," but you never know...
Anyway, I'm in the final, final stages of my Aquarium report. I present in a little over a week and then it's whatever that needs to be changed from the presentation and then I'm finished! Yay! Feels kind of weird to think I won't have any other "work" hanging over my head after I get home from work.
Cooking hasn't been happening the last few weeks. I worked a 7-day workweek and was tired from those days. Then the next week was crazy and then I had a 4-day weekend. I spent the weekend relaxing to the fullest! I really needed those 4-days off. I was exhausted and just not handling work well. I feel better at work now. Still haven't gotten back to cooking, but hopefully I'll get back to it at some point.
Health wise...it's been a weird year. I don't have health insurance right now, but I'm thinking of signing up for next year. Not because of Obamacare, but I have a feeling I might need some expensive tests if I can't get my heart palpitations under control. I had a dizzy, lightheaded spell a few weeks ago and it's gone, but they lingered for days afterwards. They weren't nearly as bad as the first few days (the first day, I was in bed most of it because I was so dizzy), but it was enough to make me feel ill for a week. Not sure if they were connected, but after that, my heart palpitations were really bad. Since then, they've calmed down some, but I still get them almost daily. Some are worse than others. They did stop a good month or so, but I'm not sure what caused them to stop. I think a good part of it is my diet. They stopped around the time I was cooking so maybe it has something to do with salt content, but I'm not sure. Exercise helps, of course, and I don't have them during the exercise, but I still get them afterwards. Who knows! I'm watching it.
My heel spurs also came back during my 7-day workweek. They're slowly going away. They're so annoying! You never appreciate your shoes more than when you can't walk without them...I just need to remember to stretch. Heel spurs you can't really get rid of (they're a bony protrusion in your heel), but you can keep them under control through stretching and other exercises. Heel spurs flare up when the tendon on the bottom of your foot flares up and gets irritated further by the spur. It's a lot like biting your cheek and then you keep biting your cheek because it's flared up. If my tendon is irritated it, it rubs against the spur, and the spur irritates it more. Stretching helps keep the tendon from getting irritated.
I get the weird things, don't I? At least my chest sebaceous cyst is still gone, even if it itches sometimes and has left a weird "scar." :)
Kodie (my cat) had quite an ordeal the last few weeks. She was scratching and licking a lot, but we just thought she was allergic to something (her food kept changing). Then, I found a flea on me in bed. Ew! None of the animals are outdoor, but it doesn't mean we couldn't have brought them in. Her scratching and licking got REALLY bad. So bad, she removed almost all the base fur on her back near the base of her tail (looks like someone who is bald and is trying to hide the bald patches). She was also licking a spot on her back leg so much, she was licking it raw and creating a wound. So, we decided to put her soft cone on her to get her to stop licking the spot on her leg. All the licking was causing her to throw up a lot too. In the 2 years beforehand, she threw up 3 times. In just 3 days, she threw up 4 times. That's how much fur she was licking off herself. So...the cone went on, which meant I haven't slept well in a week. She had the cone for 3 or 4 days and since she couldn't lick, she was scratching a LOT and she kept scratching at her neck (where the cone was) and so she'd hit the cone and it'd make an annoying, loud noise. And then she'd want to lick, so she'd lick the cone, which made an annoying, loud noise. Yeah, she was kicked out of the room a lot. FINALLY got her Advantage and put it on her yesterday. In 24 hours, you can see the difference. She's not itching as much and the cone stopped her habit of licking. She seems far more comfortable now. I know she's still going to pull fur out because she's covered in scabs, but I'm hoping the fleas were the problem and not an allergy. We didn't put Advantage on the rabbits, so we'll see. She's currently sleeping in my trashcan. LoL My FULL trashcan. What a weird cat...
Anyway, to the large movie update I said that needed to be completed. This is a good week since there are no new movies I've watched and there are several coming out next week. Most opinions are going to be short since it's been a while since I've seen some of these and there's so many of them.
Mud (Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland, Reese Witherspoon) - There's been talk about McConaughey getting an Oscar nod for Mud (maybe not the short list, but it comes up in conversation). He's the title role and it's an interesting, albeit slow movie. It's about growing up and relationships (or love). I wouldn't recommend it for everyone as it is slow, but I thought the acting was good. It's kind of nice to see McConaughey in a different role, though. The boys were also really good. Grade: B
Olympus Has Fallen (Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman) - Full of cliches and Chris and I laughed a lot in this movie. First off, you know this is going to be an over-the-top action film and it is, but there are just funny scenes in it (like the lady who's running away from the Washington Monument as it's collapsing). The other funny thing is Freeman isn't the POTUS! What...?! Well, he's Speaker of the House and the actual POTUS (Eckhart) is basically kidnapped so...Freeman is acting POTUS! LoL The other laughable thing was it was Koreans who attacked the nation and kidnapped the President. At first, you're made to believe it's S. Koreans, but then you find out it's really a guy who's infiltrated the SKoreans and he's rooting for the NKoreans. Chris and I both went, "What?! It's Koreans?!" Both being Korean, it was funny to us. When was the last time you saw the US attacked by Koreans in a movie?! At any rate, it was a good rental, action movie, but we laughed a lot (non-intentional laughs) too. Grade: C
Bullet to the Head (Sylvester Stallone, Jason Momoa) - What did I watch...? It wasn't bad, but it is a Stallone film. Basically a bad guy and a good guy get together to defeat a badder guy. Really, is there anything else to say? It's subpar. Grade: C-
42 (Chadwick Boseman) - My main impression of this film is...It's the baseball equivalent of Remember the Titans. It's feel-good, decent story, decent acting, and gives you a happy feeling when you finish watching it. Wasn't a bad movie. Not the most "action" packed or even riveting film, but it was decent and, in a subpar year for me, it stood out for being better than the average. Grade: B
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf) - Redford and LaBeouf...What an odd pair. Not a bad film, but definitely lacks in something...Story...? Directing...? Not sure. Chris and I chuckled because Big Sur makes an appearance because it's a location for drug smuggling. The story has a somewhat quasi "mystery" in it from these radicals (Redford) while the news reporter (LaBeouf) tries to fish out the history and mysteries, but it's just...not that interesting? Definitely a forgettable movie (I wouldn't even remember the movie if it wasn't for remembering the actors). Grade: C
The Big Wedding (Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, etc) - Rom-com that's almost more drama than rom-com. It's more reminiscent of It's Complicated or Something's Gotta Give (e.g., the story is more about the older actors than the younger ones). Unfortunately, it's not as funny or endearing as Something's Gotta Give. The story gets bogged down by the triangle and everyone's personal issues. It's not bad, but it's definitely not as good as it could have been given the cast. Grade: C
Kick-Ass 2 (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) - Not as good as the first one. It's more violent than the first, but it's not like "overly violent," I guess. I don't know. It's just not as good as the first one. I was disappointed in it. Grade: C
Emperor (Matthew Fox, Tommy Lee Jones) - I need to check the historical accuracy of the movie, but I didn't think it was that bad. The love story for Fox was a little cumbersome, but I got why they did it too. I thought Jones was a good MacArthur. It is an interesting period of history that you don't hear a lot. I don't think I realized how tenuous it was for the Emperor of Japan and being tried for war crimes or the implications it could have had. I didn't think it was too bad, but Fox's love story does bog it down. Grade: C+
Trance (James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson) - I really liked this movie. The problem with it and the ability to recommend it to others is it deserves its rating (rated R). It eliminates most people I know who would want to see it and, as a psycho-thriller, it's a good psycho-thriller! It has a pretty violent scene (with a mostly gross violent part -- seeing someone's face shot off talking (part of the psycho-thriller part)) and there's a full frontal nude scene from the female. Granted, the nude scene is short and serves a purpose, but I don't think they had to write that entire plot point into the movie. Then again, it also tracks along to who McAvoy's character is (art dealer). Like I said, though, it didn't need to be in there, but it does make some sense (in the end -- back to the psycho-thriller part). At any rate, I like psycho-thrillers. They tend to be mind-bending and require the watcher's full attention and I like the twists. This one had TWISTS. I knew one twist, but I didn't know the 2nd one. I think if I had paid more attention, I would have figured out the major twist, but I wasn't watching as closely as I should have. It was interesting, though, and left a slightly open ending (kind of like Inception). Decent acting, decent script, but it's not entirely original either... Just a shame it's really rated R. Grade: B/B-
Amour (Jean-Lous Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva) - FINALLY got to watch this! It's been months since the Oscars. It's a slow movie and the captions don't help either in making the movie speed up, but it is so heart-wrenching and endearing...It's such a touching story of love, commitment, and responsibility. If it doesn't pull your heart strings, you're heartless. It is rather depressing, though. Chris kept saying, "Why are you watching this? It's depressing." It's depressing, but tender too. The ending is kind of up for debate on whether you agree or not, but you also can see why he did what he did. In his mind, it was an act of love, respect, and mercy. Grade: B+/A-
Pain and Gain (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johsnon, Anthony Mackie) - Crime comedy...? Dramedy? Something along those lines...The movie is both "serious" as it's based off a true story, but also pokes fun at itself the whole way through. The weirdest thing for me was seeing Whalberg so ripped...Weird. It's well acted, but it's silly so you can't take it serious. At the end of it, you just went, "Are those people really that dumb?!" Yeah...Wouldn't recommend for most people. Grade: C
Oblivion (Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko) - I'm not sure if I really liked this movie or not. I did guess most of the "twists" in it. It was entertaining. I'm not a huge Cruise fan, but it worked. Good special effects. Good acting. Okay script/story. Eh. It was kind of what I expected. Grade: C+/B-
The Place Beyond the Pines (Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper) - Kind of a tedious script as it spans 2 generations and tried to get across I think too many points, but I don't think it was too bad. If anything, it's an interesting look at what our consequences can do for years down the road (the main point I took away). Not bad. Not great. Good acting, though, I think Gosling tends to pick his films pretty well. Grade: C+
Well...With that...I'm up to 72 watched movies for the year! 28 more to make 100 and 16-ish weeks left of the year. Hm. We'll see! I've got 4 movies I want to see that are coming to RedBox this coming week. After that, we'll see. It'll depend a lot on when summer movies come out. I'm also reading a lot again. Still haven't read anything that says instantly "new love!," but you never know...
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Well...I'm late to THIS party...
I knew years ago that Xanga was a gamble to keep blogging on when blogging took its nosedive and Blogger and Wordpress emerged. Either of them were a solid choice, but I was being stubborn since I've been on Xanga since my high school days (Sept 20, 2003 was my first post) and far before either ever became popular. Consistency, right? Well, Xanga has converted to Xanga 2.0 and though I could keep blogging there, I'd have to sign-up for Premium (only $48 for a year), but I figure I'll start migrating myself somewhere else.
At first, I thought my posts were lost to time because I couldn't figure out how to get my XML files that Xanga (thank goodness!) very graciously had made available to me. (I was completely oblivious to the future Xanga change...Way to be observant, me!) Blogger wouldn't accept them and I couldn't get WordPress to accept them either. Turns out, I was doing it correctly on WordPress, but I just had to hit the account I wanted to use and I figured it was "optional" as I only had one account. Apparently not! After some research, I tried again and I got them to upload! Yay! After I uploaded all the files to WordPress, I could export the blog and use a converting program to get them to upload to Blogger. Yay! So, though I haven't posted on Blogger in absolutely years (my first Blogger post is now mixed in with all my old Xanga ones, but I think it was posted in 2007), I have ALL my old blog posts (and pictures) here! Technology...How I love thee. I wasn't so sad to lose the past 9 years of blogs, but I was sad to lose 2013's posts. I can't say it enough. I'm very thankful Xanga exported all my files for me and WordPress is so accommodating. I do still miss my Xanga site and feel bad I wasn't able to give a "I'm moving!" post, but I was totally oblivious to the whole situation! Perhaps one day I'll do the Premium account just to support it. It is my childhood!
With that said, I'm still undecided which platform I want to use. I've got the blog here and also the blog at wordpress (mjk1221.wordpress.com). At this point, I'll be using Blogger because I like the customization it allows, but I like the ease-of-use wordpress provides and its transferability to more platforms and future endeavors (if those occur). We'll see. I have a feeling I'll just stick to Blogger since it's all Google uniform (Google's slowly taking over the digital world!).
I do have a major movie update I need to do and need to complete at least one "My Life..." post! I've started two of them and then I got busy and then the whole Xanga thing happened and I think I spent a good two weeks going, "What is going on?" before I decided to look into it. Movie update will happen first. I just need to get back into the idea of blogging. I'm a little sad, I suppose. Oh well. What are you going to do?
At first, I thought my posts were lost to time because I couldn't figure out how to get my XML files that Xanga (thank goodness!) very graciously had made available to me. (I was completely oblivious to the future Xanga change...Way to be observant, me!) Blogger wouldn't accept them and I couldn't get WordPress to accept them either. Turns out, I was doing it correctly on WordPress, but I just had to hit the account I wanted to use and I figured it was "optional" as I only had one account. Apparently not! After some research, I tried again and I got them to upload! Yay! After I uploaded all the files to WordPress, I could export the blog and use a converting program to get them to upload to Blogger. Yay! So, though I haven't posted on Blogger in absolutely years (my first Blogger post is now mixed in with all my old Xanga ones, but I think it was posted in 2007), I have ALL my old blog posts (and pictures) here! Technology...How I love thee. I wasn't so sad to lose the past 9 years of blogs, but I was sad to lose 2013's posts. I can't say it enough. I'm very thankful Xanga exported all my files for me and WordPress is so accommodating. I do still miss my Xanga site and feel bad I wasn't able to give a "I'm moving!" post, but I was totally oblivious to the whole situation! Perhaps one day I'll do the Premium account just to support it. It is my childhood!
With that said, I'm still undecided which platform I want to use. I've got the blog here and also the blog at wordpress (mjk1221.wordpress.com). At this point, I'll be using Blogger because I like the customization it allows, but I like the ease-of-use wordpress provides and its transferability to more platforms and future endeavors (if those occur). We'll see. I have a feeling I'll just stick to Blogger since it's all Google uniform (Google's slowly taking over the digital world!).
I do have a major movie update I need to do and need to complete at least one "My Life..." post! I've started two of them and then I got busy and then the whole Xanga thing happened and I think I spent a good two weeks going, "What is going on?" before I decided to look into it. Movie update will happen first. I just need to get back into the idea of blogging. I'm a little sad, I suppose. Oh well. What are you going to do?
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
My Life...
Next few posts or so I'm probably going to do some "looks into me" posts (probably spread between my random posts about movies and whatever else). This is entirely unintentional, but I was planning to blog about these things anyway and thought I'd split them up and make them more "formal." One will be about nail polish (I get a lot of questions about my hobby and the stuff I use, so why not?). One will be about my life as an adoptee (lots of babies popping up around me, read an interesting piece about fertility issues, and have had a string of recent "what nationality are you?" questions). And, lastly, there will be one about horse racing (perhaps less about me and more about the industry and the issues it faces). Might be another that's somewhat work-customers related, but we'll see.
With that said, you have those to look forward to, but here's my requisite movie post with random life observations. :)
I realized the other week that my new life motto (not really) is, "Can live messy, can't work messy." Sounds weird, but it's totally true! I remember vividly in school (I mean high school and lower grades) that I had to have things on my desk in a neat and ordered way. My backpack had things in certain places and so forth; however, my room was never exactly "neat." I will admit I've gone from severely messy to less...messy... :P I can't say I'm "neat" at home, but I guess I'm more "orderly" on the grand scale of things. Back to the topic at hand, the other day I was doing the dishes before I started cooking and I had to clean the kitchen before I could even THINK about cooking. Counters had to be cleaned of miscellaneous items; dishes had to be all cleaned and put away; counter had to be wiped down; etc. At least I don't go as far as needing the floor mopped! It got me thinking, "Why do I do that...?" and it dawned on me! I can live messy, which means I can walk into the kitchen, put a dirty dish on the counter or in the sink and walk away and be fine with it. I can even let them pile up for days and I'm fine with it. In that regard, no harm, no foul. I can have a messy desk and be fine if I'm not using it (Chris tends to "stash" a lot of things on my desk). Unfortunately, for me, whenever I need a space to WORK, whether it's simply washing the dishes, cooking, doing Aquarium work at my computer, etc, I need my space clutter-free. It's like the chaos of the place being messy distracts my brain and I can't function till it's gone. It's like OCD takes over a part of my brain because things have to be in certain places or not in my work area. Chris always knows to watch out when I get into these, "I can't deal with this mess! I need it cleaned NOW" moments. They can hit me suddenly in the apartment and I just get into a cleaning frenzy because I can't take it anymore. Coincidentally, these moments tend to happen when I'm trying to move about the place the most. When I cook, I need empty counter spaces and an empty drying rack with no dishes in the sink. Even when it's just cleaning dishes and nothing else, I can't have dishes in the sink. I take them out of the side I'm washing in or put them onto the counter. I also clean dishes as I cook. I can't leave a huge pile in the sink or on the counter. It also makes sense while I'm at work why I have to have things neat and orderly. My manager isn't as neat and I'm constantly putting things back into place or whatever and it goes back to my "Can live messy, can't work messy." It's my place of work, which means it needs to be orderly or it drives me up a wall. In a lot of ways, I guess the saying says a lot about me. Haven't deduced it all, but it's been an interesting "eye opener" for me and how I function.
As I said earlier, I'm cooking -- a lot. Why? I have no other idea than it's a mechanism to ween myself off of nail polish. LoL If I'm cooking and spending money on cooking stuff, I don't have money to spend on nail polish and I don't have time to browse websites! I still don't fully enjoy cooking, but it's something different and it's fun trying different recipes and seeing how well I can execute them. In addition, at least eating out means more now. LoL My problem right now is that I need to figure out "quicker" recipes to make after work since I'll end up spending the entire evening cooking and/or baking instead of relaxing. Eh. I'll figure it out at some point. I can't be up till 11:30pm every night finishing baking 2 lemon pound cakes with a lemon glaze after making homemade beef stroganoff all on the same day I did the grocery shopping for said foods right after work! Won't do that again...I was exhausted! Though, the lemon pound cakes were absolutely amazing...I'm going to make them again in a day or two.
On to movies...
The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) - You know, it wasn't too bad...until you get to the end. It was better than Wolverine Origins and it's better than the 3rd X-Men (and probably the 2nd one...? It's been too long since I watched them to say definitively), but you get to the end and, if you know canon at all, it gets shot to pieces. What did they do to the end?! It was a decent film up to the moment Logan face plants into the snow after being made a human pin cushion (watch the trailer for the scene I'm referring to). From that point on, it made me go, "Wha...?" If you took out the canon issues, it was an okay ending. It was a little too much "immortality sacrifices," blah, blah, blah, but you probably could have lived with it. Unfortunately, even people who don't know canon are going to ask questions during some scenes because it doesn't make sense. If you know even a LITTLE bit of canon (I know enough to be dangerous, but by no means am an expert and I'd barely even call me a novice), it will make you go, "What?" I also didn't like Jean in this film...This movie takes place, roughly, right after X-Men 3 so Jean "appears" to Logan and it was definitely a "been there, done that" feeling with her. I was totally over her. It's been too long since X-Men 3, apparently. :P With that said, it's the step in the right direction for Wolverine movies and for X-Men movies in general. With X-Men: First Class being a good film and The Wolverine being an okay-to-decent film, maybe X-Men is partially redeeming itself? One can hope... Grade: C+
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, etc) - GI Joe 2 was delayed from being released in theaters by about 8-10 months (I forget when, exactly, in the latter half of 2012 it was supposed to come out) to do reshoots and to make sure 3-D was done properly. I waited for DVD to watch it and I'm not sad. First off, it's GI Joe. I know it's going to be fantastical and a little over the top, but you watch it for the action and not the story, right? Okay, maybe not, but that's why I was watching it. It's a little too fantastical for me. By far, the best scene was the ninja scene on the mountain. It was pretty darn cool to watch and who doesn't like watching ninjas fight? With that said, the rest of it was over-the-top and I laughed at the end about all the "chases" there were. It wasn't horrible, though. Was it better than the first one? It's been too long since I saw the first to say and I didn't think the first was as bad as people thought it was in the first place. I would say it's in the lower levels of action films, though. It just doesn't work as well as it could. Grade: C-
Admission (Tina Fey, Paul Rudd) - In ways, the title of the movie is a double entendre. Sure, it's about someone who does admissions for Princeton, but she also had an "admission" (as in a confession, of sorts) in it too. While the movie had some funny parts and I think Paul Rudd and Tina Fey were pretty good in the film, the story is okay till you get about 3/4 (2/3) of the way through the film and then it loses you. What starts as trying to be different, gets a little too different and then it takes you down a road that I can't agree with. I wish it stayed in the rom-com department and stayed away from the drama. The drama and the twists really do ruin the movie, but, at the same time, I was able to watch the movie without it making me feel like I wasted my evening. So, it's a toss up, but the ending does really degrade the entire thing. Grade: D/D+
I'm currently enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. Djawadi does the soundtrack for the first Iron Man, which I really enjoy and knew from the opening song of Pacific Rim he did the soundtrack because it sounds VERY similar to Iron Man. It's a good theme, though, so I'm enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. I like songs with a good bass in them and Djwadi does that a lot in both films. I do enjoy the Game of Thrones opening credit theme song too, which he does the music for Game of Thrones.
Speaking of movie soundtracks, I never mentioned Varese Sarabande released their 30th anniversary compilation of CDs this year. Every 5 years they release a 4-CD set of "main theme" songs from TV shows and movies they publish. I'd been waiting for the release of it months before it came out (technically, been waiting since their 25th anni was released!). I own every anniversary set they've released (20, 25, and 30) and I love them. They're fairly cheap for such a wide array of soundtracks and for being a 4-setter. They're not all instrumentals too. Some of them have singing, but it's not a lot. I do appreciate how they release a NEW set of songs for each set (basically the previous 5 years) rather than mix-and-match the sets for the past 30 years.
My CD of choice, though, has been Lord Huron again. I'm almost nonstop playing it. I do so enjoy it. Randomly, I found out Florence + the Machine (who I also really like) and Lord Huron are signed by the same record label. Random tidbit. :)
With that, time to find something new to read. I demolished the two new books in series I'm reading that came out the last week (that was a really awkward sentence...). I really should slow down to read them (finished one in 24 hours -- that's including the fact I had work during that day), but I enjoy the series so much and the books are good so I can't stop! In addition, even if I reread the series (and I've reread these series several times), I can't read them for the first time again. I'm seriously addicted to the feeling and excitement I get from reading and devouring a new series for the first time. It's an addiction for me. I crave that feeling so I've been hunting for a series trying to find other stuff to read. There's just something special about reading a good book you really liked and had no idea you'd like it so much. Next best thing is reading a new book in the series, but...just not the same. Course, that's assuming the next book in the series is actually good. :P
With that said, you have those to look forward to, but here's my requisite movie post with random life observations. :)
I realized the other week that my new life motto (not really) is, "Can live messy, can't work messy." Sounds weird, but it's totally true! I remember vividly in school (I mean high school and lower grades) that I had to have things on my desk in a neat and ordered way. My backpack had things in certain places and so forth; however, my room was never exactly "neat." I will admit I've gone from severely messy to less...messy... :P I can't say I'm "neat" at home, but I guess I'm more "orderly" on the grand scale of things. Back to the topic at hand, the other day I was doing the dishes before I started cooking and I had to clean the kitchen before I could even THINK about cooking. Counters had to be cleaned of miscellaneous items; dishes had to be all cleaned and put away; counter had to be wiped down; etc. At least I don't go as far as needing the floor mopped! It got me thinking, "Why do I do that...?" and it dawned on me! I can live messy, which means I can walk into the kitchen, put a dirty dish on the counter or in the sink and walk away and be fine with it. I can even let them pile up for days and I'm fine with it. In that regard, no harm, no foul. I can have a messy desk and be fine if I'm not using it (Chris tends to "stash" a lot of things on my desk). Unfortunately, for me, whenever I need a space to WORK, whether it's simply washing the dishes, cooking, doing Aquarium work at my computer, etc, I need my space clutter-free. It's like the chaos of the place being messy distracts my brain and I can't function till it's gone. It's like OCD takes over a part of my brain because things have to be in certain places or not in my work area. Chris always knows to watch out when I get into these, "I can't deal with this mess! I need it cleaned NOW" moments. They can hit me suddenly in the apartment and I just get into a cleaning frenzy because I can't take it anymore. Coincidentally, these moments tend to happen when I'm trying to move about the place the most. When I cook, I need empty counter spaces and an empty drying rack with no dishes in the sink. Even when it's just cleaning dishes and nothing else, I can't have dishes in the sink. I take them out of the side I'm washing in or put them onto the counter. I also clean dishes as I cook. I can't leave a huge pile in the sink or on the counter. It also makes sense while I'm at work why I have to have things neat and orderly. My manager isn't as neat and I'm constantly putting things back into place or whatever and it goes back to my "Can live messy, can't work messy." It's my place of work, which means it needs to be orderly or it drives me up a wall. In a lot of ways, I guess the saying says a lot about me. Haven't deduced it all, but it's been an interesting "eye opener" for me and how I function.
As I said earlier, I'm cooking -- a lot. Why? I have no other idea than it's a mechanism to ween myself off of nail polish. LoL If I'm cooking and spending money on cooking stuff, I don't have money to spend on nail polish and I don't have time to browse websites! I still don't fully enjoy cooking, but it's something different and it's fun trying different recipes and seeing how well I can execute them. In addition, at least eating out means more now. LoL My problem right now is that I need to figure out "quicker" recipes to make after work since I'll end up spending the entire evening cooking and/or baking instead of relaxing. Eh. I'll figure it out at some point. I can't be up till 11:30pm every night finishing baking 2 lemon pound cakes with a lemon glaze after making homemade beef stroganoff all on the same day I did the grocery shopping for said foods right after work! Won't do that again...I was exhausted! Though, the lemon pound cakes were absolutely amazing...I'm going to make them again in a day or two.
On to movies...
The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) - You know, it wasn't too bad...until you get to the end. It was better than Wolverine Origins and it's better than the 3rd X-Men (and probably the 2nd one...? It's been too long since I watched them to say definitively), but you get to the end and, if you know canon at all, it gets shot to pieces. What did they do to the end?! It was a decent film up to the moment Logan face plants into the snow after being made a human pin cushion (watch the trailer for the scene I'm referring to). From that point on, it made me go, "Wha...?" If you took out the canon issues, it was an okay ending. It was a little too much "immortality sacrifices," blah, blah, blah, but you probably could have lived with it. Unfortunately, even people who don't know canon are going to ask questions during some scenes because it doesn't make sense. If you know even a LITTLE bit of canon (I know enough to be dangerous, but by no means am an expert and I'd barely even call me a novice), it will make you go, "What?" I also didn't like Jean in this film...This movie takes place, roughly, right after X-Men 3 so Jean "appears" to Logan and it was definitely a "been there, done that" feeling with her. I was totally over her. It's been too long since X-Men 3, apparently. :P With that said, it's the step in the right direction for Wolverine movies and for X-Men movies in general. With X-Men: First Class being a good film and The Wolverine being an okay-to-decent film, maybe X-Men is partially redeeming itself? One can hope... Grade: C+
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, etc) - GI Joe 2 was delayed from being released in theaters by about 8-10 months (I forget when, exactly, in the latter half of 2012 it was supposed to come out) to do reshoots and to make sure 3-D was done properly. I waited for DVD to watch it and I'm not sad. First off, it's GI Joe. I know it's going to be fantastical and a little over the top, but you watch it for the action and not the story, right? Okay, maybe not, but that's why I was watching it. It's a little too fantastical for me. By far, the best scene was the ninja scene on the mountain. It was pretty darn cool to watch and who doesn't like watching ninjas fight? With that said, the rest of it was over-the-top and I laughed at the end about all the "chases" there were. It wasn't horrible, though. Was it better than the first one? It's been too long since I saw the first to say and I didn't think the first was as bad as people thought it was in the first place. I would say it's in the lower levels of action films, though. It just doesn't work as well as it could. Grade: C-
Admission (Tina Fey, Paul Rudd) - In ways, the title of the movie is a double entendre. Sure, it's about someone who does admissions for Princeton, but she also had an "admission" (as in a confession, of sorts) in it too. While the movie had some funny parts and I think Paul Rudd and Tina Fey were pretty good in the film, the story is okay till you get about 3/4 (2/3) of the way through the film and then it loses you. What starts as trying to be different, gets a little too different and then it takes you down a road that I can't agree with. I wish it stayed in the rom-com department and stayed away from the drama. The drama and the twists really do ruin the movie, but, at the same time, I was able to watch the movie without it making me feel like I wasted my evening. So, it's a toss up, but the ending does really degrade the entire thing. Grade: D/D+
I'm currently enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. Djawadi does the soundtrack for the first Iron Man, which I really enjoy and knew from the opening song of Pacific Rim he did the soundtrack because it sounds VERY similar to Iron Man. It's a good theme, though, so I'm enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. I like songs with a good bass in them and Djwadi does that a lot in both films. I do enjoy the Game of Thrones opening credit theme song too, which he does the music for Game of Thrones.
Speaking of movie soundtracks, I never mentioned Varese Sarabande released their 30th anniversary compilation of CDs this year. Every 5 years they release a 4-CD set of "main theme" songs from TV shows and movies they publish. I'd been waiting for the release of it months before it came out (technically, been waiting since their 25th anni was released!). I own every anniversary set they've released (20, 25, and 30) and I love them. They're fairly cheap for such a wide array of soundtracks and for being a 4-setter. They're not all instrumentals too. Some of them have singing, but it's not a lot. I do appreciate how they release a NEW set of songs for each set (basically the previous 5 years) rather than mix-and-match the sets for the past 30 years.
My CD of choice, though, has been Lord Huron again. I'm almost nonstop playing it. I do so enjoy it. Randomly, I found out Florence + the Machine (who I also really like) and Lord Huron are signed by the same record label. Random tidbit. :)
With that, time to find something new to read. I demolished the two new books in series I'm reading that came out the last week (that was a really awkward sentence...). I really should slow down to read them (finished one in 24 hours -- that's including the fact I had work during that day), but I enjoy the series so much and the books are good so I can't stop! In addition, even if I reread the series (and I've reread these series several times), I can't read them for the first time again. I'm seriously addicted to the feeling and excitement I get from reading and devouring a new series for the first time. It's an addiction for me. I crave that feeling so I've been hunting for a series trying to find other stuff to read. There's just something special about reading a good book you really liked and had no idea you'd like it so much. Next best thing is reading a new book in the series, but...just not the same. Course, that's assuming the next book in the series is actually good. :P
Friday, July 26, 2013
A very long week...
And thus concludes my 8-day work week! Or, it concluded 2 days ago, which means...I SURVIVED! To be fair, working the 8 days wasn't as horrible as I thought it might be. It's been a while (half a year or so) since I've worked more than 5 days in a row, but I started my 8-day work week with a 12-hour shift. Not the greatest way to start off. In addition, I *almost* worked 9 days in a row, so I guess I should be happy it was only 8. :) However, as my co-worker said, it's all in your expectations. Since I knew I was working the 8 days, I mentally prepared and I did. I was trying to get more sleep, take my breaks, and pace myself. It's unfortunate, though, that most of my work week was spent being a little short staffed. I think I started my 5 week stint as "manager" under stress and ended it under stress. Somewhere in the middle I definitely hit my stride. Not to say I totally lost it towards the end, but with everything going on at the store and with our manager coming back, I definitely was reverting more back to my being the assistant manager and just trying to keep the boat afloat.
With that said, my last week as acting manager was a total success as we dug ourselves out of the hole we made in making our plan and I think it ended well. I felt like the 5 weeks as acting manager were both good for me in the ways of character building and leadership skills, but also just solidifying my place at Goodwill. Not to say I really want my place "solidified" (I do not want to be a manager at Goodwill, tyvm), but I felt like I finally got some notoriety with the higher-ups. When our manager returned, he said that the higher-ups had noted how well I handled the store and it went better than they could have hoped. I always feel like Goodwill leans a little too heavily upon the managers when I can do things just as well as he can (granted, not all assistant managers can do that, but I can!). It was also nice "getting to know" other people at Goodwill I normally never had any contact with because my manager handled it all.
I'm really proud of my co-workers too. They stepped up and were understanding (mostly) with everything going on and were flexible with changes and with me sometimes just running around having to let them run the store while I went and did whatever administrative thing I had to do. I think, in a lot of ways, we proved something as a team. Not that I thought the store was going to fall apart without our manager, but I also wasn't sure how smooth it was going to be or how everyone was going to take me being at the helm for 5 weeks. People stepped up where I needed them and it worked out. Course, saying all that, THANK GOODNESS my manager is back! :P I think being the leader on your own is one thing, but filling a place for 5 weeks is a totally "other" thing because you're both having to manage and try to keep the spirit of your manager there. It's not like he even left the job, so it was kind of weird sometimes since I wouldn't always get forwarded emails and had to keep up on some of those also.
At any rate, now that he's back, I can go back to my own duties and projects I liked to do. I noticed while he was gone the things I used to up keep and do fell by the wayside and I focused more on his areas and things he did. I just couldn't find the time to do two people's projects! I'm kind of excited to get back to my own routine. I liked my routine and I got back to it the minute he walked through the door. I actually got to clean two sections I like and get things out!
With my manager back, I saw him for one day and then took 4 days off. LoL I really needed the 4-days turns out. I was going to take 3 days off split up, but decided the last minute to do 4 and I'm glad. It's been nice having this time off. My last 4-days off were spent finishing my Aquarium report so this is kind of like the first time in a while I've had NOTHING to do. I tried a new manicure technique I haven't done before (gradient) and I'm rereading a ton of books and generally just enjoying my time off!
I have watched several movies in the last few weeks and might go see another this weekend. So, movies!
Dead Man Down (Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace) - Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I feel like Farrell does the same type of movie or he's a similar type of person in a lot of them. Then again, I could just be thinking of just a few movies of his I have seen. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical mob-vengeance type of movie. I think the acting is good, but the story doesn't really work for me. It also doesn't bode well when I can tune out the movie for 20 minutes and know where I am too... Grade: C-
The Host (Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, etc) - This surprised me. I've read the book and between Twilight and The Host, The Host is generally favored between Meyer's written works. I, too, fall into that category. The Host came out the year Breaking Dawn came out and I liked The Host, but it's a novel that takes place, mostly, between one entity or body. In other words, an alien takes possession of a human body and the human fights back and communicates with the alien. To say the least, I was really dubious how the movie was going to play out given there's so much talking to each other in their head. Turns out, they handled it pretty well. I never realized how slow the book is, though, until I watched the movie. It is a rather slow paced movie, but it was okay for me. The only time I really thought the talking-to-each-other thing was awkward was at the end where you're in a close-up of the body and they just talk to each other. It was a little weird and really showed the "slowness" of the book, but at least it moves past it. To say the least, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't fantastic either. Grade: C
Spring Breakers (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco) - What in the world did I watch? LoL I can get its allure from the critics and sort of its point (wait, am I sure there was a point?), but it's definitely NOT for everyone. It's definitely a polarizing film where some people will love it and others will really dislike it. With that said, I thought Franco's acting was really different than you normally see him and good and I didn't mind the girls either, but the whole premise of the story is...different. I suppose the main point is to look at our culture and what is the point of spring break. In ways, that's what the director wanted to do and I suppose he accomplished that. I think watching the movie took up precious memory space, but it was an interesting watch to see what the "buzz" was about. Wouldn't recommend it, though. Grade: D
Pacific Rim (Charlie Hunnam, Mako Mori, etc) - Now THIS is what I think of a summer blockbuster...Not to say Star Trek or Man of Steel weren't blockbusters, but I somewhat miss the mindless action that films bring and Star Trek and Man of Steel required too much analyzing at the end (or disappointment?). I'd buy this on DVD. It's a great action packed film with fantastic special effects. Sure, it feels a little Japanese-western sci-fi cliche-y movie, but it works. It could have been really bad (and the trailer does make it look pretty bad -- even *I* thought it was a DVD renter!), but it works. I liked it. I did keep thinking, "They're destroying precious ocean habitat!" throughout the movie, that's probably a problem few people had watching it. :) It's a good theater watch for the special effects and the sound quality. I'm glad I saw it in theater. It's not an original story and the story is REALLY predictable (there's various levels of predictability and this near the top -- I could predict which actors were dying and whether it was a heroic death or just a casualty), but it somehow works. It is a little more mainstream for a del Toro film, but it was interesting to see him direct a big movie like this. Grade: B+
Despicable Me 2 (Steve Carell) - Cute sequel. I can't say whether it was better than the first one or not because I don't remember the first that much, but this one is cute. I liked the minions, I liked the relationship between Gru and the kids, and I liked the story (generally). It's just about what you would expect so not a whole lot to report on it. Grade: B
Jack the Giant Slayer (Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Elanor Tomlinson) - Well, this was better than I thought it would be, but still nowhere near as good as it could have been...? It does give a slight feel that's ala Princess Bride, but it is its own movie. I'm not sure what really turned me off from it, but something doesn't work. I'm not sure if it's Hoult, the feel, or the story. Could be all three. It's a mindless watch, for the most part, and there are interesting moments, but, mostly, it's nothing fantastic. Grade: C
Welcome to the Punch (James McAvoy, Mark Strong) - I was distracted by Strong the entire time! I couldn't figure out what was bothering me till I looked at photos of him in Sherlock Holmes and then it dawned on me -- Hair! Who'd of thunk that'd bother me so much? At any rate, I like McAvoy so that's why I decided to rent this. You saw the pairing of the two former enemies to take down the "greater" enemy coming from a mile away, but it was something you still needed to watch. The movie was paced kind of weird. Normally, films like these you can tune out for 5-10 minutes, tune back in, and know where they are (more-or-less). I had to rewind the movie several times and then finally resigned myself to needing to watch it with my whole attention. There were things they left "sitting" for a while (to get back to at a different time) and they didn't need to. I thought the acting was good, but I wish the story flowed in a different way. I guess the attempt was to make it "different," but it just didn't work. And then, the semi-non-ending was kind of weird too. I don't know. Not my favorite. Grade: C-
Identity Thief (Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy) - Pretty much what you'd expect even towards the end because you could see it coming midway through. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't anything really interesting too. I did find it hard for Bateman's character to steel the identity of his boss, but maybe that's me. He couldn't be the saint the whole movie or that'd be "boring," but still...With that, it's a little haphazard of a film and the laughs weren't there. You expect more from a pairing like that (or maybe you don't) and they didn't really deliver. Grade: C/C-
It occurs to me that I haven't given a movie that came out in 2013 an "A," ye t...In fact, Pacific Rim at a B+ is the highest this year! I can't tell if I'm becoming more jaded given how many movies I watch or if there truly hasn't been a "great" film this year. I guess I'll have to wait till the latter half of the year where the Oscar dramas start pouring out of the woodwork. Plus...Who can't wait for Thor or The Hobbit?! I don't know if I'll make 100 movies this year, though. I have 44 more movies to go and 5 more months. That's about 9 movies a month and I tend to slow down towards the end because the summer movies haven't come out or I've watched them all. We'll see!
With that said, my last week as acting manager was a total success as we dug ourselves out of the hole we made in making our plan and I think it ended well. I felt like the 5 weeks as acting manager were both good for me in the ways of character building and leadership skills, but also just solidifying my place at Goodwill. Not to say I really want my place "solidified" (I do not want to be a manager at Goodwill, tyvm), but I felt like I finally got some notoriety with the higher-ups. When our manager returned, he said that the higher-ups had noted how well I handled the store and it went better than they could have hoped. I always feel like Goodwill leans a little too heavily upon the managers when I can do things just as well as he can (granted, not all assistant managers can do that, but I can!). It was also nice "getting to know" other people at Goodwill I normally never had any contact with because my manager handled it all.
I'm really proud of my co-workers too. They stepped up and were understanding (mostly) with everything going on and were flexible with changes and with me sometimes just running around having to let them run the store while I went and did whatever administrative thing I had to do. I think, in a lot of ways, we proved something as a team. Not that I thought the store was going to fall apart without our manager, but I also wasn't sure how smooth it was going to be or how everyone was going to take me being at the helm for 5 weeks. People stepped up where I needed them and it worked out. Course, saying all that, THANK GOODNESS my manager is back! :P I think being the leader on your own is one thing, but filling a place for 5 weeks is a totally "other" thing because you're both having to manage and try to keep the spirit of your manager there. It's not like he even left the job, so it was kind of weird sometimes since I wouldn't always get forwarded emails and had to keep up on some of those also.
At any rate, now that he's back, I can go back to my own duties and projects I liked to do. I noticed while he was gone the things I used to up keep and do fell by the wayside and I focused more on his areas and things he did. I just couldn't find the time to do two people's projects! I'm kind of excited to get back to my own routine. I liked my routine and I got back to it the minute he walked through the door. I actually got to clean two sections I like and get things out!
With my manager back, I saw him for one day and then took 4 days off. LoL I really needed the 4-days turns out. I was going to take 3 days off split up, but decided the last minute to do 4 and I'm glad. It's been nice having this time off. My last 4-days off were spent finishing my Aquarium report so this is kind of like the first time in a while I've had NOTHING to do. I tried a new manicure technique I haven't done before (gradient) and I'm rereading a ton of books and generally just enjoying my time off!
I have watched several movies in the last few weeks and might go see another this weekend. So, movies!
Dead Man Down (Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace) - Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I feel like Farrell does the same type of movie or he's a similar type of person in a lot of them. Then again, I could just be thinking of just a few movies of his I have seen. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical mob-vengeance type of movie. I think the acting is good, but the story doesn't really work for me. It also doesn't bode well when I can tune out the movie for 20 minutes and know where I am too... Grade: C-
The Host (Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, etc) - This surprised me. I've read the book and between Twilight and The Host, The Host is generally favored between Meyer's written works. I, too, fall into that category. The Host came out the year Breaking Dawn came out and I liked The Host, but it's a novel that takes place, mostly, between one entity or body. In other words, an alien takes possession of a human body and the human fights back and communicates with the alien. To say the least, I was really dubious how the movie was going to play out given there's so much talking to each other in their head. Turns out, they handled it pretty well. I never realized how slow the book is, though, until I watched the movie. It is a rather slow paced movie, but it was okay for me. The only time I really thought the talking-to-each-other thing was awkward was at the end where you're in a close-up of the body and they just talk to each other. It was a little weird and really showed the "slowness" of the book, but at least it moves past it. To say the least, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't fantastic either. Grade: C
Spring Breakers (Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco) - What in the world did I watch? LoL I can get its allure from the critics and sort of its point (wait, am I sure there was a point?), but it's definitely NOT for everyone. It's definitely a polarizing film where some people will love it and others will really dislike it. With that said, I thought Franco's acting was really different than you normally see him and good and I didn't mind the girls either, but the whole premise of the story is...different. I suppose the main point is to look at our culture and what is the point of spring break. In ways, that's what the director wanted to do and I suppose he accomplished that. I think watching the movie took up precious memory space, but it was an interesting watch to see what the "buzz" was about. Wouldn't recommend it, though. Grade: D
Pacific Rim (Charlie Hunnam, Mako Mori, etc) - Now THIS is what I think of a summer blockbuster...Not to say Star Trek or Man of Steel weren't blockbusters, but I somewhat miss the mindless action that films bring and Star Trek and Man of Steel required too much analyzing at the end (or disappointment?). I'd buy this on DVD. It's a great action packed film with fantastic special effects. Sure, it feels a little Japanese-western sci-fi cliche-y movie, but it works. It could have been really bad (and the trailer does make it look pretty bad -- even *I* thought it was a DVD renter!), but it works. I liked it. I did keep thinking, "They're destroying precious ocean habitat!" throughout the movie, that's probably a problem few people had watching it. :) It's a good theater watch for the special effects and the sound quality. I'm glad I saw it in theater. It's not an original story and the story is REALLY predictable (there's various levels of predictability and this near the top -- I could predict which actors were dying and whether it was a heroic death or just a casualty), but it somehow works. It is a little more mainstream for a del Toro film, but it was interesting to see him direct a big movie like this. Grade: B+
Despicable Me 2 (Steve Carell) - Cute sequel. I can't say whether it was better than the first one or not because I don't remember the first that much, but this one is cute. I liked the minions, I liked the relationship between Gru and the kids, and I liked the story (generally). It's just about what you would expect so not a whole lot to report on it. Grade: B
Jack the Giant Slayer (Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Elanor Tomlinson) - Well, this was better than I thought it would be, but still nowhere near as good as it could have been...? It does give a slight feel that's ala Princess Bride, but it is its own movie. I'm not sure what really turned me off from it, but something doesn't work. I'm not sure if it's Hoult, the feel, or the story. Could be all three. It's a mindless watch, for the most part, and there are interesting moments, but, mostly, it's nothing fantastic. Grade: C
Welcome to the Punch (James McAvoy, Mark Strong) - I was distracted by Strong the entire time! I couldn't figure out what was bothering me till I looked at photos of him in Sherlock Holmes and then it dawned on me -- Hair! Who'd of thunk that'd bother me so much? At any rate, I like McAvoy so that's why I decided to rent this. You saw the pairing of the two former enemies to take down the "greater" enemy coming from a mile away, but it was something you still needed to watch. The movie was paced kind of weird. Normally, films like these you can tune out for 5-10 minutes, tune back in, and know where they are (more-or-less). I had to rewind the movie several times and then finally resigned myself to needing to watch it with my whole attention. There were things they left "sitting" for a while (to get back to at a different time) and they didn't need to. I thought the acting was good, but I wish the story flowed in a different way. I guess the attempt was to make it "different," but it just didn't work. And then, the semi-non-ending was kind of weird too. I don't know. Not my favorite. Grade: C-
Identity Thief (Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy) - Pretty much what you'd expect even towards the end because you could see it coming midway through. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but wasn't anything really interesting too. I did find it hard for Bateman's character to steel the identity of his boss, but maybe that's me. He couldn't be the saint the whole movie or that'd be "boring," but still...With that, it's a little haphazard of a film and the laughs weren't there. You expect more from a pairing like that (or maybe you don't) and they didn't really deliver. Grade: C/C-
It occurs to me that I haven't given a movie that came out in 2013 an "A," ye t...In fact, Pacific Rim at a B+ is the highest this year! I can't tell if I'm becoming more jaded given how many movies I watch or if there truly hasn't been a "great" film this year. I guess I'll have to wait till the latter half of the year where the Oscar dramas start pouring out of the woodwork. Plus...Who can't wait for Thor or The Hobbit?! I don't know if I'll make 100 movies this year, though. I have 44 more movies to go and 5 more months. That's about 9 movies a month and I tend to slow down towards the end because the summer movies haven't come out or I've watched them all. We'll see!
Saturday, July 6, 2013
3rd time is the charm?
I have attempted to write this blog post three times now. I write half of it and get tired of writing so I save it and go away thinking I'll get to it the next day. Little do I realize, the next time I get to it, it's been a week and I don't feel like posting anything I wrote! So I start all over again. Hopefully, this post will actually make it to fruition!
Weather for a while here was really warm. Our store has almost no airflow unless the front doors are open and if it's windy, you can't have the doors open because the wind just BARRELS through it. So we tried to keep the doors open as much as possible, but the humidity was gross. The temperature this week has gone down a little, but our store still gets pretty warm and the weather of late has been that it's just a little too cold to leave the front doors open or the cashiers start to freeze to death. It's unfortunate that anywhere away from the doors ends up being warm and stuffy. I've been in the office a lot with our manager being gone and that room has no vent for anything so it's either stuffy as all get out or an ice box. Yuck.
Anyway, beyond that, our manager had the baby! Or, I should say, his wife had the baby. :) Baby will be three weeks old on Sunday (depending when I end up posting this, this could be either tomorrow or today). I've been managing the store and will be managing it for a total of 5 weeks. I'm glad he can take that time to be with the baby. Only get them at that age once, right? Mostly, the store is running. It's had its rocky moments for various reasons and we did, mostly, finish the month out strong, but we did miss plan altogether. Oh well, at least I got some good 4 days in there at the end. The start of July has been good (knock on wood!). We'll see if we can maintain that momentum the rest of the month, though. It's kind of early to be saying things like that. It took me about a week, but I think I've finally got my manager groove on. The first week was a big scramble because it was the end of the month and a lot of things happen at the end of the month. I got it all done, but I felt like I spent a week just scrambling. In fact, because my days off changed (just till our manager gets back), I almost had 4 days off in a row. I had two days off, worked one, and had another two days off. The one day I worked I spent almost all day in the office because I had a lot of things to do that had to be done before I left for another 2 days off. It was crazy! Mostly, though, it's been going well. I haven't seen any higher-ups and I'm not sure if that's because I'm managing the store well so they're not worried or if it's because they're all busy with our new CEO/President coming on (our old one's last day was June 28th -- he retired) and the new store opening in Soledad (opens the 25th). At any rate, I definitely feel like I've firmly planted in the "manager" role, though. Before, it was a lot of questions about where to send things and being a little more timid about doing some things. Now, I feel like I've got this. I think... :P
Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. My Aquarium report is in for peer review so I've got a little down time right now (it was ready for peer review on the 20th of June). So that's kind of nice. I'm doing some reading and have gotten into reality TV a lot. I'm watching Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef, Whodunnit?, and Top Shot. Mostly watching Hell's Kitchen because it's an easy extension of MasterChef, but I really like MasterChef more than Hell's Kitchen. I find MasterChef more interesting to watch, whereas Hell's Kitchen is a lot of yelling and people messing up how to cook food. MasterChef is more about how they cook the food and then criticizing how they cooked/prepped/handled the food. I've always enjoyed Top Shot, but I forgot the new season started and that it was an All Stars season. I have to admit, I was maybe a little *too* excited for the fact Top Shot was back. I'm enjoying the season and it's fun seeing people from the past 4 season. I really liked some of the people from the past so it's good to see them back and how a lot of the episodes and challenges are the same things from past seasons, but amped up. Whodunnit? was a fluke that I got into. It was just there and I had read about it so I just started watching it and now I'm curious to see how it finishes. I think it's clever, but I think part of its current cleverness is because it's a new show so you're not entirely sure how it'll play out. I will say, thus far, I think they're handling it in an interesting way. It is a little cheesy at times (there are no real dead bodies) or overly dramatized, but it works to a point.
Been feeling nostalgic over the closing of Hollywood Park lately. Its last summer meet is about to come to a close (1 more week) and it'll be sad! They'll get a winter meet in Nov-Dec, but, after that, it'll be closed and construction should start the first of the new year. 75 years of history demolished to build new housing and retail in Inglewood, CA. Sad...So many great and well-known horses originated and ran at that track. Three triple crown winners (Citation, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed) ran there. Zenyatta and I'll Have Another (last year's Kentucky/Preakness winner) were based there. Seabiscuit ran there too. So sad. Bay Meadows closing down was sad, but nothing like this. It's historic! The Warner Brothers (yes, THE Warner Bros) managed the track when it first opened. Great Hollywood industry leaders helped get that track off the ground. No clue who where all the horses will be stabled when Santa Anita is closed. Looks like California is getting closer, but we'll see. If I can, I think I'll try going to one of its last days in December (closing day and its LAST day is Dec 22nd). It was the first track I went to and I got to see Zenyatta there. I should try going.
Anyway, movies I'm watching about one a week in theater and rentals have been sort of low. A lot of "eh" movies to watch on DVD. I want to see Beautiful Creatures, but I really had problems reading through the book (not even sure how I made it through the 2nd one!) that I can't seem to bring myself to watch the movie. I am curious to see how they did it, but...eh. We'll see.
Monsters University (Pixar) - Good Pixar film. Not their best, but it was cute. I liked learning the little tidbits here and there about the characters when they're in Monsters, Inc. It is pretty predictable, but what are you going to expect when this is a prequel? I did like how they made you see the parallels between Monsters University and our Universities. That was fun to see. I just don't think it was *that* good, though. It was a little too "kiddy" perhaps? I'm not sure. Some of the enjoyment of Pixar films is how an adult can see the film and get just as much enjoyment out of it as a kid can (or so I think it does), but this was maybe just a little too predictable...? Not sure. It just didn't quite live up to my own hype, but it was still cute and a good film. Grade: B
Man of Steel (Henry Cavill, Amy Adams) - This actually was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. True, Cavill doesn't say a whole lot, but I generally liked it and I liked the origin building and how they explained things. I liked his costume, flying stance, and the way they did the story. I liked how they didn't go immediately into a Lex Luthor story and I liked how it was more flashbacks to the past instead of starting firmly in the past and building forward. I liked Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon. Costner wasn't the greatest, but that was also how his role was written. Adams was a little flat for me, but she wasn't terrible. There were some bad/stupid moments, but it was generally pretty good and fulfilled the reason you're seeing it in theaters rather than at home. Grade: B
Side Effects (Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law) - This was not what I expected the movie to be when I saw the previews. I saw the previews enough that I wanted to see it and thought it'd be more like a thriller version of Contagion. Yeah, that wasn't it. I had the thriller part right, but it was NOTHING like Contagion. I think if I hadn't had Contagion in my head, I would have been okay. This was much more of a thriller than I thought it was going to be too. I rather enjoyed it, though. I thought the acting was good and the plot was good. There's a twist that you catch on to about midway through the movie, but you're still somewhat unsure how it's completely going to pan out. You get the general idea of how it's going to end, but you just don't have all the facts. The trailer also leads you slightly off the correct path too so I was surprised how instrumental Law's character is to the movie. To say the least, it's a good drama-thriller and leads you on a little chase. Grade: B
Oz the Great and Powerful (James Franco, etc) - I knew this was going to be bad (reason I didn't see it in theater), but I was curious to know how bad and what they'd do to the "origin" story of the Wizard of Oz. Uhm, yeah. My conclusion from the movie: Oz became the Wizard of Oz because he was a player. Yes, he was a player. Being a player gets him into all sorts of trouble that result in him needing to "become" the Wizard of Oz behind all the theatrics. And, him being a player, is what turned the Wicked Witch of the West into the, well, Wicked Witch. Wow, it was bad... Grade: D (it entertained a little, hence the reason it's not an F)
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) - I was curious to see what they'd do to Hansel and Gretel and knew it'd be bad, but, again, I didn't realize how bad it was going to be. It's laughable sometimes, but it did entertain if you can go with the fact the plot is supremely weak and it's just a lot of chasing and nonsense. With that said, I do think they appropriately cast because Renner is good for the females and Arterton is good for the males. So, I guess they got something semi-right... Grade: D
The Call (Halle Berry) - If they took out all the screaming and whining from the abductee in the first half of the movie (maybe 2/3), I think I'd have liked it better. I mean, okay, if I was abducted and thrown into a car trunk, I might be a little hysterical at times, but this girl (and, again, she was young) was really grating on my nerves. I just couldn't take all the hysterics...And, again, I understand that a girl who is 16 or something, abducted, and tossed into a trunk is going to be devastated and scared, but it wasn't pleasant to listen to or really watch. I did enjoy Berry's character, though, and thought it was actually kind of interesting to watch even though Berry's character is on the phone for 3/4 of the film, but...gah. The girl! When she got over the hysterics, I was more inclined to watch. I could NOT stand the ending, though. I 100% disagree with that ending. The ending completely killed the movie for me. Sure, they're both traumatized and everything, but I honestly can't fathom that ending. The ending was more about vengeance and I can't support that type of ending. So, despite the fact I probably would have given the movie a C on its own, I'm giving it a D for the ending alone. Grade: D
I'll be seeing Despicable Me 2 in theater on Monday. Don't think I'll see Lone Ranger in theater...I don't think it'll be bad in the sense I'll dislike it, but...I don't know. Something turns me off from the trailer. I need to find someone who's seen it...
Anyway, off to keep reading. :)
Weather for a while here was really warm. Our store has almost no airflow unless the front doors are open and if it's windy, you can't have the doors open because the wind just BARRELS through it. So we tried to keep the doors open as much as possible, but the humidity was gross. The temperature this week has gone down a little, but our store still gets pretty warm and the weather of late has been that it's just a little too cold to leave the front doors open or the cashiers start to freeze to death. It's unfortunate that anywhere away from the doors ends up being warm and stuffy. I've been in the office a lot with our manager being gone and that room has no vent for anything so it's either stuffy as all get out or an ice box. Yuck.
Anyway, beyond that, our manager had the baby! Or, I should say, his wife had the baby. :) Baby will be three weeks old on Sunday (depending when I end up posting this, this could be either tomorrow or today). I've been managing the store and will be managing it for a total of 5 weeks. I'm glad he can take that time to be with the baby. Only get them at that age once, right? Mostly, the store is running. It's had its rocky moments for various reasons and we did, mostly, finish the month out strong, but we did miss plan altogether. Oh well, at least I got some good 4 days in there at the end. The start of July has been good (knock on wood!). We'll see if we can maintain that momentum the rest of the month, though. It's kind of early to be saying things like that. It took me about a week, but I think I've finally got my manager groove on. The first week was a big scramble because it was the end of the month and a lot of things happen at the end of the month. I got it all done, but I felt like I spent a week just scrambling. In fact, because my days off changed (just till our manager gets back), I almost had 4 days off in a row. I had two days off, worked one, and had another two days off. The one day I worked I spent almost all day in the office because I had a lot of things to do that had to be done before I left for another 2 days off. It was crazy! Mostly, though, it's been going well. I haven't seen any higher-ups and I'm not sure if that's because I'm managing the store well so they're not worried or if it's because they're all busy with our new CEO/President coming on (our old one's last day was June 28th -- he retired) and the new store opening in Soledad (opens the 25th). At any rate, I definitely feel like I've firmly planted in the "manager" role, though. Before, it was a lot of questions about where to send things and being a little more timid about doing some things. Now, I feel like I've got this. I think... :P
Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. My Aquarium report is in for peer review so I've got a little down time right now (it was ready for peer review on the 20th of June). So that's kind of nice. I'm doing some reading and have gotten into reality TV a lot. I'm watching Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef, Whodunnit?, and Top Shot. Mostly watching Hell's Kitchen because it's an easy extension of MasterChef, but I really like MasterChef more than Hell's Kitchen. I find MasterChef more interesting to watch, whereas Hell's Kitchen is a lot of yelling and people messing up how to cook food. MasterChef is more about how they cook the food and then criticizing how they cooked/prepped/handled the food. I've always enjoyed Top Shot, but I forgot the new season started and that it was an All Stars season. I have to admit, I was maybe a little *too* excited for the fact Top Shot was back. I'm enjoying the season and it's fun seeing people from the past 4 season. I really liked some of the people from the past so it's good to see them back and how a lot of the episodes and challenges are the same things from past seasons, but amped up. Whodunnit? was a fluke that I got into. It was just there and I had read about it so I just started watching it and now I'm curious to see how it finishes. I think it's clever, but I think part of its current cleverness is because it's a new show so you're not entirely sure how it'll play out. I will say, thus far, I think they're handling it in an interesting way. It is a little cheesy at times (there are no real dead bodies) or overly dramatized, but it works to a point.
Been feeling nostalgic over the closing of Hollywood Park lately. Its last summer meet is about to come to a close (1 more week) and it'll be sad! They'll get a winter meet in Nov-Dec, but, after that, it'll be closed and construction should start the first of the new year. 75 years of history demolished to build new housing and retail in Inglewood, CA. Sad...So many great and well-known horses originated and ran at that track. Three triple crown winners (Citation, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed) ran there. Zenyatta and I'll Have Another (last year's Kentucky/Preakness winner) were based there. Seabiscuit ran there too. So sad. Bay Meadows closing down was sad, but nothing like this. It's historic! The Warner Brothers (yes, THE Warner Bros) managed the track when it first opened. Great Hollywood industry leaders helped get that track off the ground. No clue who where all the horses will be stabled when Santa Anita is closed. Looks like California is getting closer, but we'll see. If I can, I think I'll try going to one of its last days in December (closing day and its LAST day is Dec 22nd). It was the first track I went to and I got to see Zenyatta there. I should try going.
Anyway, movies I'm watching about one a week in theater and rentals have been sort of low. A lot of "eh" movies to watch on DVD. I want to see Beautiful Creatures, but I really had problems reading through the book (not even sure how I made it through the 2nd one!) that I can't seem to bring myself to watch the movie. I am curious to see how they did it, but...eh. We'll see.
Monsters University (Pixar) - Good Pixar film. Not their best, but it was cute. I liked learning the little tidbits here and there about the characters when they're in Monsters, Inc. It is pretty predictable, but what are you going to expect when this is a prequel? I did like how they made you see the parallels between Monsters University and our Universities. That was fun to see. I just don't think it was *that* good, though. It was a little too "kiddy" perhaps? I'm not sure. Some of the enjoyment of Pixar films is how an adult can see the film and get just as much enjoyment out of it as a kid can (or so I think it does), but this was maybe just a little too predictable...? Not sure. It just didn't quite live up to my own hype, but it was still cute and a good film. Grade: B
Man of Steel (Henry Cavill, Amy Adams) - This actually was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. True, Cavill doesn't say a whole lot, but I generally liked it and I liked the origin building and how they explained things. I liked his costume, flying stance, and the way they did the story. I liked how they didn't go immediately into a Lex Luthor story and I liked how it was more flashbacks to the past instead of starting firmly in the past and building forward. I liked Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon. Costner wasn't the greatest, but that was also how his role was written. Adams was a little flat for me, but she wasn't terrible. There were some bad/stupid moments, but it was generally pretty good and fulfilled the reason you're seeing it in theaters rather than at home. Grade: B
Side Effects (Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law) - This was not what I expected the movie to be when I saw the previews. I saw the previews enough that I wanted to see it and thought it'd be more like a thriller version of Contagion. Yeah, that wasn't it. I had the thriller part right, but it was NOTHING like Contagion. I think if I hadn't had Contagion in my head, I would have been okay. This was much more of a thriller than I thought it was going to be too. I rather enjoyed it, though. I thought the acting was good and the plot was good. There's a twist that you catch on to about midway through the movie, but you're still somewhat unsure how it's completely going to pan out. You get the general idea of how it's going to end, but you just don't have all the facts. The trailer also leads you slightly off the correct path too so I was surprised how instrumental Law's character is to the movie. To say the least, it's a good drama-thriller and leads you on a little chase. Grade: B
Oz the Great and Powerful (James Franco, etc) - I knew this was going to be bad (reason I didn't see it in theater), but I was curious to know how bad and what they'd do to the "origin" story of the Wizard of Oz. Uhm, yeah. My conclusion from the movie: Oz became the Wizard of Oz because he was a player. Yes, he was a player. Being a player gets him into all sorts of trouble that result in him needing to "become" the Wizard of Oz behind all the theatrics. And, him being a player, is what turned the Wicked Witch of the West into the, well, Wicked Witch. Wow, it was bad... Grade: D (it entertained a little, hence the reason it's not an F)
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) - I was curious to see what they'd do to Hansel and Gretel and knew it'd be bad, but, again, I didn't realize how bad it was going to be. It's laughable sometimes, but it did entertain if you can go with the fact the plot is supremely weak and it's just a lot of chasing and nonsense. With that said, I do think they appropriately cast because Renner is good for the females and Arterton is good for the males. So, I guess they got something semi-right... Grade: D
The Call (Halle Berry) - If they took out all the screaming and whining from the abductee in the first half of the movie (maybe 2/3), I think I'd have liked it better. I mean, okay, if I was abducted and thrown into a car trunk, I might be a little hysterical at times, but this girl (and, again, she was young) was really grating on my nerves. I just couldn't take all the hysterics...And, again, I understand that a girl who is 16 or something, abducted, and tossed into a trunk is going to be devastated and scared, but it wasn't pleasant to listen to or really watch. I did enjoy Berry's character, though, and thought it was actually kind of interesting to watch even though Berry's character is on the phone for 3/4 of the film, but...gah. The girl! When she got over the hysterics, I was more inclined to watch. I could NOT stand the ending, though. I 100% disagree with that ending. The ending completely killed the movie for me. Sure, they're both traumatized and everything, but I honestly can't fathom that ending. The ending was more about vengeance and I can't support that type of ending. So, despite the fact I probably would have given the movie a C on its own, I'm giving it a D for the ending alone. Grade: D
I'll be seeing Despicable Me 2 in theater on Monday. Don't think I'll see Lone Ranger in theater...I don't think it'll be bad in the sense I'll dislike it, but...I don't know. Something turns me off from the trailer. I need to find someone who's seen it...
Anyway, off to keep reading. :)
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