...Ugh. Not to say that my week back to life has been horrible, but I'm day 2 into my 7-day streak of work and I realized yesterday that those 7-days go: open, close, open, close, open, close, open. NOT fun...Open to close is great, but close to open is not fun. I get 12 hours before I have to be back at work. On top of it, my manager is gone for, basically, 2 weeks so I get to man the store and people are being brought in to help cover open/close shifts and general help since the manager will be gone and one of our leads is gone. So leadership team? We're down half. *sigh* I have since warned all my fellow co-workers that if I'm cranky come Wednesday/Thursday, I have every reason to be! :)
I did forget to mention (not sure how that happened!) that I got an iPad mini! My dear parents (especially my dad) got me the iPad mini and it was decided it's an early Christmas present. Fine with me! I love it. I'm not sure if it's more because I went from an iPad 1 to the iPad mini or if I sincerely just love the size and capabilities of the mini. At any rate, I adore it. I still use my iPad 1 and will probably keep it for now, but I really like my iPad mini. It's especially fantastic how light it is. It doesn't fit in my hand (I've got girly hands...?), but it's easy to read with because it's so light and I love the retina display on it. Granted, those two latter things are probably due to my iPad 1 being, well, old, but I like my iPad too! I didn't ever realize it was slow till I got the mini...I actually might enjoy reading on my iPad instead of my iPhone for once...I can't tell you how many books I have read on my iPhone. I've read quite a few on my iPad (iPad is especially good for PDFs over the iPhone), but I probably read 5xs more books on my iPhone than my iPad for all sorts of reasons. The mini might just be the perfect compromise...
At any rate, I am reading a new book and I stopped reading for a while. I'm not going to reach my book goal I set. I just stopped reading and couldn't get into anything. Actually, before I left on my trip, I had another "didn't want to watch or read anything" week. I seem to have gotten out of that. I also stopped in at a B&N (I miss Borders...) and did a quick run around and wrote down book titles, so we'll see.
With that...On to movies! Two movies that are going to be deemed as "adult" movies, 1 family friendly and 1 sci-fi film. Eclectic week...
Rock of Ages (Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, etc) - It was okay. The music was interesting. The acting was okay. It kind of reminded me of a happier ending version and a little more silly version of Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow. I guess Hough wasn't really a protegee type, but it's still the young, cute couple who both want to sing and they adore some big star and, yaddy, yaddy. Boneta's character was probably more the protegee type. It's just a little sillier and a happier ending than Country Strong. I liked it, but it didn't "wow" me or anything. Grade: C
Arthur Christmas (voices: James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, etc) - Technically, this is a 2011 movie. I adore McAvoy. I have seen him in a good portion of his latest films (from Narnia to present) and I've liked him in everything he's been in (even if it's an animation film!). This is his 2nd animation film he voiced and I liked it! I enjoyed the voice cast (I adore Hugh Laurie too) and I liked the film. It was a pleasant film to watch and it touched me. It's fun, exciting, and also speaks to the excitement of Christmas for children. Sure, the kids believe in Santa (Arthur is the current Santa's youngest son), but it was more about remembering the magic of Christmas and not letting the presents and "process" we get into for Christmas ruin the magic of Christmas. The entire story revolves around them trying to deliver a present to a kid before she woke up. I liked it. It was also funny because it spoke about changing traditions. So the letter to Santa in the beginning is all scientific and how presents are now delivered is heavily based on technology (reindeer? Who needs reindeer?). I liked it. I might watch it again in December. I will say that the animation is excellent too. It's not the "realistic animation," but I thought it was good. Grade: A-
Prometheus (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender) - Going to be up front and say I have not watched any of the Alien movies; therefore, I can't accurately say one way or another how good it is in comparison of the Alien movies. In addition, I feel at a slight disadvantage because I watched it (it's not that scary...I actually found it more "gross" at points and, even then, not that often) and then went, "It wasn't so bad, but what's the fuss?" It felt a little disjointed to me. I wonder if that's how people feel if they watched Star Wars Episodes 1-3 first before 4-6. I mean, after you've watched 4-6, you kind of have a "point" to have 1-3 and you look out for those tidbits of canon to help fill in the gaps. This one felt like it might have been better to have watched Alien first and THEN Prometheus because it was kind of like "Really? That's it. I watched all that for the last 5 minutes to figure out where Alien came from?". So, I feel like I'm missing some canon significance for the movie that I would have been like "Ooh!" if I had watched Alien first. Oh well. At any rate, the movie wasn't bad or anything. The acting was good. I liked Fassbender and Rapace. I knew going in that the team was doomed, but not sure how. I just didn't get the fuss, I guess... Grade: C
Magic Mike (Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, etc) - Okay, you're thinking, "Why in the world did she watch that?" I was curious! To be honest, other than the gyrating and a couple of scenes in thongs, there's not a whole lot to fuss about. You probably see just as much male skin in any other movie. There are a few scenes of bare female breasts, but, really, not as much as people sometimes think. I will say that after watching the dance scenes all I could think was, "Really? There are women and men who like watching the opposite dance like this? It's so boring..." To say the least, I was only "half" watching it as I was nail polish browsing...The story was kind of interesting. Sure, the kid is brought in, but it's really about Tatum and the kid's sister's relationship and how she, ultimately, gets him out of the gig and encourages him to reach his goals another way. The kid, unfortunately, is more-or-less lost to the life. So, yeah. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, overall. Would I recommend it? Not really. Grade: C
With that...80 movies! Yay! Feasibly...I think the rest of the year's movies will be Skyfall, Hobbit, and Les Mis in theater; I might surprise myself and see Twilight in theater, but Anna Karenina for sure is a rental next year. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Moonrise Kingdom, Expendables 2, and Lawless will be rentals. Might be more, but I can't see the movie rentals past the first week of December. Might watch Hope Springs and, if I'm desperate, maybe Stolen (Nicolas Cage...Why do I want to torture myself?!). So that's 7 films for sure. I'm pretty sure I can push it to 10 given I can't see the last 3 weeks of December movie rentals and Twilight might sneak in. I actually think I might watch this Twilight on DVD, which will be the first one I haven't seen in theater and it's kind of fitting since, pretty much, this part of the movie is also the part of the book I never finished (I skimmed, read reviews, etc, so I know what happens). We'll see. :) So...Maybe 90 movies for the year! Not bad, but it also makes me want to try to reach 100 next year and that's just...scary...to think about!
With that...Should go to bed since I have to open tomorrow. Ugh.
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