the oracle

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August 29, 2008

the world's filled with filth and lies

I can't believe I haven't written about Dr. Horrible before now! Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is the result of Joss Whedon, his two brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharden all getting together during the writer's strike and putting together three acts of an online musical tv show. Neil Patrick Harris won my heart as Dr. Horrible, and Nathan Fillion does a great job playing Captain Hammer (corporate tool). If you haven't seen it yet, take a few minutes and watch. I don't think you'll be sorry.

Posted by oracle at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull

Mike and I saw Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull right after we watched The Incredible Hulk. I'm a total Indy fangirl, so I loved it, of course.

*** SPOILERS ***

My main concern before seeing the movie was how Harrison's Ford/Indiana Jones' age was going to be handled. I was afraid it was going to feel like an old, decrepit actor trying to relive his glory years. Thankfully, the movie didn't have that feeling at all. The movie addresses the fact that Indy's older and there are references and jokes to it here and there throughout the whole film - not so many that it gets annoying, though. In fact, the only age-related complaint I have is about the grandpa pants they put Indy in at the beginning of the movie. Who the hell decided that Indiana Jones should be wearing PLEATED PANTS? Hate.

My other major concern was Shia LaBeouf's character, Mutt. I took a disliking to him from the little bit I saw in the previews, but that changed when I actually saw the movie. He played his character very well, and I'm okay with the idea of him continue on the Indiana Jones name, although I would prefer another transition movie with Harrison Ford before Indy retires. I may be looking into it too much, but I'm choosing to interpret the scene at the end when Indy takes his hat out of Mutt's hands after he picked it up off the floor at the wedding as an indicator that Indy's not quite ready to hang it up yet. Whether that's my overactive imagination or the real intention behind the scene, I thought it was a nice touch.

Initially I was very displeased that Marion was going to be included in the movie. I didn't think much of her character in Raiders, and I was anticipating more of the same. I have to admit, though, she was much better than I thought she was going to be. The way they worked her back in fit with the plot, and I was amused by the way she and Indy bickered back and forth, especially when even the Russian told them to shut up.

The movie was very much along the same lines as the other three with the expected whip action and narrow escapes, and I can't imagine that anyone was surprised by Marion's revelation that Mutt was Indy's son. (Side note: one of my favorite parts of the movie is Indy's rapid change of position on Mutt finishing school after he found out he was his father.) I liked the little references back to the previous movies (ex: showing the Ark in the warehouse scene), and I thought it was cute that the mountain in the typical opening shot turned out to be a prarie dog hill. As far as the MacGuffin went, I'm very interested in the Cities of Gold and Central/South American Indians, so the crystal skull premise drew me in, but then, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a hardcore Indy fangirl, so it's not like I watch these movies to pick them apart. As Mike put it, "If you like the others then you will like this movie. You analyze it any more than that then you shouldn't be watching the Indiana Jones movies to begin with."

Posted by oracle at 10:36 AM | Comments (1)

The Incredible Hulk

Mike and I went to see this a couple of weekends ago, hoping that it would live up to the standard set by Iron Man. We weren't disappointed.

***SPOILERS***

Edward Norton was a wonderful choice as Bruce Banner. He was very engaging, drawing me even though I had minimal knowledge of the Hulk going into the movie. I was emotionally invested in him by the time he went back to try to find the data from the experiment on him, and I may or may not have burst into tears when he was hiding from Liv Tyler outside the restaurant.

Liv Tyler was the only negative thing about the movie for me. I think her talent is over-played, and there were only a few times during the movie that I stopped thinking about her as Liv Tyler and thought of her as her character, Betty Ross (Side note: nine times out of ten when I'm talking about Betty Ross, I misspeak and call her Betsy Ross. Damn history classes.), the most notable of which was when she was yelling at the cab driver.

The rest of the cast was well chosen. William Hurt and Eli Roth were both excellent in their roles, and, even though we didn't see much of him, I liked the way Betty's boyfriend played his character too.

The effects were just as good as the casting. Most of the time we didn't get to see Bruce's transformation into the Hulk, but in one scene we get to see it step-by-step, and they did a fantastic job with that.

The movie didn't spend a lot of time on backstory. Instead, they addressed the origins of the Hulk at the beginning of the movie in a montage as the credits played. It was a nice change to not have the first third of the movie dedicated to establishing the character, to be able to get a quick look at it and then jump straight into the movie.

Probably my favorite parts of the movie were the little touches that connected it to Iron Man and the groundwork that's being established for an upcoming Avengers movie - the Stark Industries logo on boxes and weapons throughout the movie, seeing a document with Nick Fury's name and invoices from Stark Industries during the montage at the beginning, and, of course, the Tony Stark cameo at the end of the movie.

Aside from Liv Tyler, the only other thing I didn't like about the movie was the way Bruce's dog was treated in the beginning. If puppies aren't going to meet with a happy end, let's just leave them out of the movie, please.

Posted by oracle at 7:29 AM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2008

Iron Man

We've been to see Iron Man twice now - once as soon as it came out, and then again the following weekend with the kids - and I'd be okay with going to see it every week until it's no longer in theaters. I guess that might be a bit excessive, though. The score is wonderful (I ordered the soundtrack as soon as we got home from seeing it the first time, and that's practically all I've listened to for the past few weeks), the story is excellent, the casting is fantastic, visually it's fantastic - really, I don't think there's anything about this movie I don't like. Gwyneth Paltrow is perfect as Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard is perfect as Rhodey, and Robert Downey, Jr., is so awesome I can't put into words how much I love him as Tony Stark. I'm still trying to convince Mike that we need to change our last name to Stark. He's not buying it so far, but I haven't given up yet. One thing we do agree on, however, is that this movie has set the standard for us when it comes to superhero/comic book movie adaptations.

Posted by oracle at 6:51 AM | Comments (0)

April 3, 2008

Zodiac

We watched this a couple of weeks ago, and holy shit, it was longer than I expected. Good, but loooooong, especially when the plan was to pop the movie in at 7:30 and go to bed at 9:30. HA. I guess we should've looked at the movie's running time beforehand. Aside from the "Sweet weeping Moses, when will it END?" moments after the two-hour mark had come and gone, I liked the movie a lot. I used to not really care much for Jake Gyllenhal, but now I like him more and more with each movie I see him in, and Zodiac was no different. I liked his character and the way he played him, although it was hard for me to buy him as a dad. Robert Downey Jr.'s character was appealling, too. Now I need to read the book it was based on.

Posted by oracle at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2008

The Fog

We watched the remake of The Fog Sunday night, and it scared the shit out of me. I was so jittery I didn't even want to get down from the bed to pick up the remote when it fell off. I was seriously freaked out. I enjoyed it, though, and I'm looking forward to watching the original version next.

***SPOILERS***

I liked the way the story alternated back and forth between what had happened so long ago and the present day events. I'm not a big fan of Smallville, but I thought Tom Welling was yummy, and I felt bad for him at the end when Elizabeth disappeared. I don't blame the original four guys for not wanting the lepers on their island (just looking at some of them made me cringe, movie or no), but what they did was pretty horrible. Too bad the lepers didn't have their revenge on them instead of their descendants.

PS: I'm SO glad I hadn't seen this before we went on our honeymoon, otherwise our drive through that creepy fog would've been much more nerve-wracking for me!

Posted by oracle at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2008

Paparazzi

Mike and I watched Paparazzi this afternoon, and it's another movie I'm glad we Netflixed instead of buying.

***SPOILERS***

The main thing I didn't like about the movie was the way I felt after watching it. I was hoping that the detective (it would've been an awesome touch if they'd had Peter Faulk play the detective) wouldn't catch Bo (the main character, played by Cole Hauser, who was also in The Break-Up), but after seeing what he did to the paparazzi, I felt kind of guilty for cheering for him. He should've been the good guy, not someone who stooped to their level. Anyways, the one thing I liked about Paparazzi was the way they worked in cameos. In one scene, Mel Gibson is sitting in the waiting room when Bo leaves his anger management appointment. Chris Rock delivers a pizza to Bo's house, Vince Vaughn is on set when Bo is working on a movie (I LOVE Vince's lines in that scene), and Matthew McConaughey introduces himself to Bo and his family when they're at a movie premier.

An interesting note: the paparazzi with the English accent (played by Tom Hollander) played Lord Cutler Beckett in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and PotC:At World's End.

Posted by oracle at 8:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

As Good As It Gets

We watched this after The Break-Up, and it was just what I needed to see - a warm, funny, cute movie that left me feeling much better than when I started watching it. The way Jack Nicholson played Melvin was fantastic.

***SPOILERS***

I started off the movie hating him (he put a dog down the trash chute!), and by the time the movie finished I was hoping he'd get a happily ever after with Helen Hunt. Greg Kinnear was great as Simon, and I LOVED his interaction with Melvin towards the end of the movie. I also loved the way Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character got Melvin to help out. Of course, one of my favorite things about the movie was the way Melvin and the dog got so attached to each other. It was definitely a movie to watch snuggled up with my husband and pups.

Posted by oracle at 7:49 AM | Comments (0)

The Break-Up

Mike and I watched The Break-Up Saturday night. It was a good movie, but I didn't like it much, mostly because it was very uncomfortable to watch.

***SPOILERS***

The fights they had, the things they said to each other, all of those struck too close to home more often than I would have liked. Brooke (Jennifer Anniston's character) should've spelled things out for him before they go to the breaking point, Gary (Vince Vaughn's character) should've paid more attention and given more of himself before she broke down; she shouldn't have broken up with him, hoping he'd realize what a mess his life would be without her, he shouldn't have acted like the break-up wasn't bothering him. The scene at the concert when she was waiting for him broke my heart as I reconnected to all the times I'd felt like that. I kept thinking (hoping) they'd get back together in the next scene, right until the credits started rolling. I know a happy ending wouldn't have been very realistic after all that, but I was hoping for one all the same.

I did like the way Brooke's friend (played by Joey Lauren Adams) didn't just agree with her on everything. It was nice to see her let Brooke know she wasn't handling things very well sometimes. I also liked the way Gary and Brooke got together at the beginning of the movie and the way Gary's friend Johnny O kept talking about finding someone to take care of the guy Gary thought Brooke was seeing. Justin Long was funny as Brooke's co-worker (quite a change from seeing him in Jeepers Creepers!), and I really liked the way Judy Davis played Brooke's boss.

Posted by oracle at 7:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

The Texas Chainsaw Massacres: The Beginning

Mike and I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacres: The Beginning Saturday night. It was another one of those movies I'm glad we didn't buy. It was okay to watch once, but I don't see myself ever feeling like taking the time to watch it again.

(interesting tidbit courtsey of IMDB: the guy that played Eric also plays Bryce Larkin on "Chuck.")

Posted by oracle at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2008

Saw IV

Mike and I just finished watching Saw IV a little bit ago, and from what I saw through my fingers, I think it's gorier than any of the other three.

*** SPOILERS ***

The autopsy scene was HORRIBLE. I usually don't feel nauseous from watching things (I just shriek and flap my hands while I look away), but I had to breathe shallowly to make it through this part without throwing up. The washed out look of the autopsy room and the people in it was a nice contrast to the blood and guts as they were performing the autopsy. Seeing that fat guy's eyes get poked out then his limbs ripped apart was awful, as was watching that one chick's scalp get pulled off. Even using my usual method of peeking through my fingers didn't make it any easier to see. Ugh.

The one thing I heard most about this movie was how much it jumped around, but after watching it all the way through, I don't think it jumped around as much as I'd heard it did. Sure there were plenty of flashbacks, but all of those were obviously flashbacks. Once Mike and I figured out where the movie was in the timeline, we were set.

Scott Patterson (Luke from "Gilmore Girls") was one of the main characters, and while I love him to pieces as Luke, he was not cut out for the role of a grouchy hardassed FBI agent.

I liked the way the very end tied in with the end of Saw 3, and I'm looking forward to Saw 5 so I can get some answers to the questions they left unanswered. I'm not looking forward to the gore, though.

Posted by oracle at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2008

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with the kids over the weekend, and, like PotC: Dead Man's Chest, it was much better than I was anticipating.

***SPOILERS***

I didn't like Kiera Knightly - she seems too skinny and sqwaky for a piratess - and I was very upset that Jack Davenport got killed. I thought the Calypso/Davy Jones thread was interesting, although I was a little disappointed at the way that turned out. Even though I hated Orlando Bloom's character, Will Turner, for the first two PotC movies, I really liked him in this one, and I was crushed when he was killed. I've heard rumors that this is the last PotC movie they'll be making, at least with these characters. If that's true, I'm glad because I don't want them to run the franchise into the ground - I'd much rather have them end on a high note - but I'm bummed because some of these characters (Will, Jack, I'm looking at you) are appealing. I would like to see them replace Kiera Knightly, though. Catherine Zeta Jones would be a much better piratess, I think.

Posted by oracle at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2008

Hollywoodland

We watched this after we watched The Prestige, and all I have to say about watching the two movies back to back is, don't. Even though The Prestige sort of ends on a happy note, overall the ending left me feeling very angry and unsettled - a feeling Hollywoodland did nothing to dispel.

***SPOILERS***

I was very interested in the premise of the movie, (due in part, I'm sure to my recent interest in true crime) but, as with The Black Dahlia, the execution of the movie was not what I was hoping for. Ben Affleck was not engaging at all as George Reeves. I'm not sure if it's because of the way the character was written or if it was just Ben Affleck's portrayal of him, but Reeves came across as kind of annoying. By the time things were winding down, I was ready to smack him and tell him to stop moping and start making some changes already.

Adrien Brody was good as the private detective, but his storyline was pretty bleak, too. Seeing his interaction with his son and ex-wife was painful, and not even the implied reconciliation with his son at the end could counteract that. The sight of him staggering drunk, trying to pick his son up from school, was hard to bounce back from. Molly Parker played his ex-wife, and even though all of the scenes she was in were awkward, it was neat seeing her in this, especially so soon after we'd been watching "Deadwood."

Unlike The Black Dahlia, Hollywoodland didn't wrap things up neatly, solving the murder for the audience. Did George Reeves shoot himself or was he murdered? If he was murdered, did his fiancee (played by Robin Tunney) kill him? Was it his former girlfriend or her husband? I don't like leaving things unresolved, and I feel this movie did that on both storyline fronts.

Posted by oracle at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2008

The Prestige

We watched The Prestige on Monday. All I really knew about it was that it was about two rival magicians, and one kills the others wife. Since it was about magicians, ignorantly I was expecting something very similar to The Illusionist, and in some respects it was almost exactly what I expected, but then in others it was very different.

***SPOILERS***

I didn't realize we'd see it go back and forth, from the end of the story to the very beginning to the end again to the middle, etc. It was initially very confusing, however, after seeing the whole thing, I'm glad they did it that way; it gave the movie the feel of a puzzle.

On a side note, Christian Bale with that faux British accent was very hard to take seriously until after I got more engaged in the movie, and even then it was hard to buy at times. I found it quite amusing that his character's name was Alfred, given that Michael Caine co-starred in the movie, and it was fun to watch the two of them interact in a different way than they did onscreen in Batman Begins. Even with all the clips we saw I didn't ever get attached to Christian Bale's wife, Sarah, but I did feel a little sad during that last fight they had when she asked him if he loved her and his reply was, "No. Not today." Similarly, I never cared much for Scarlett Johannsen's character, although my heart did break a little for her when Hugh Jackman sent her off to spy on Christian Bale. The scene where she told him to leave his family at home where they belonged while he was with her made it hard for me to be sympathetic when she was trying to get him to open up about his feelings for Sarah after she had killed herself.

When Hugh Jackman's wife died early on in the movie I wasn't emotionally invested enough to feel anything other than a twinge of sympathy. Same thing when Christian Bale's fingers were shot off. But as the movie led up to Christian Bale's execution, seeing his interaction with his daughter, his love for her, and the anguish of not being able to be there for her, there was no question about it - I hated Hugh Jackman's character. HATED. I don't care that he lost his wife. I don't care that Christian Bale might have been responsible for her death. I didn't care that they'd been rivals for several years. The way he set things up was despicable. And dooming his other selves to death every night in that water tank? Almost as bad. Mike picked up on that immediately, by the way. As soon as we flashed back to the scene where Christian Bales is trying to break into the water tank, Mike commented, "I bet that's how he gets rid of his double every night," and sure enough, it was.

The only thing I can't quite wrap my mind around is this: which Hugh Jackman died in the water tank each night? Was it the original one, the one who had started the magic show? Or was it the new one, who had been created? Mike and I tossed the question around briefly after the movie, but came to no resolution. The only way to know that, I think, is to know what happens when that electricity zaps an object. Does it get transported to a certain point while a duplicate is created in its place? Or does the original object remain fixed while a duplicate is created at that other point? I think, based on Hugh Jackman's reaction when Christian Bale was below-stage while he was drowning, that the original Hugh Jackman was transported to the other point, and the duplicate fell into the water tank, which is why he had no idea what was happening. But then, that's just a guess, because the movie didn't really spell that out for us.

Posted by oracle at 1:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2008

horror night - January '08

This month was '80s vampire flicks. We started off with Fright Night and ended with The Lost Boys, neither of which I'd seen before, and both of which I really enjoyed watching. Next month we're tossing around the idea of watching Bubba Ho-tep and some other movie, TBD sometime in between now and then.

Posted by oracle at 6:47 PM | Comments (2)

December 21, 2007

Black Christmas - the original

Meh. Mike and I watched the original version of Black Christmas this afternoon. The premise (a killer in a sorority house at Christmastime) wasn't bad, but I was less than impressed with the way it was executed (hee).

*** SPOILERS ***

The murders started earlier than I thought they would, and my initial belief that Margot Kidder's (the old Lois Lane) character was going to be the survivor chick was wrong, wrong, wrong. I was right about when the housemother got killed, though, and, boy, was I glad to not have to listen to HER anymore in the movie. All of that aside, my main complaint is that we didn't ever learn enough about the killer or his motives. I gathered that he was the one making the creepy phone calls, so it's possible that he was just batshit crazy, with no more motivation than that. But that's not enough for me - the beginning of the movie gave the impression that he was creeping into the attic, but the dialogue said that the girls had been getting the creepy calls since before the holiday party at the beginning of the movie, so, what was the deal? Had he been living there all the time, just waiting for his opportunity (or for something to push him around the bend), or were the earlier calls a coincidence, and he'd just gotten in the house that night? What happened with the survivor chick and her boyfriend? I don't think she killed him - my money's on the same guy who killed everyone else doing it - but it's hard to tell from what we saw. And did the killer eventually kill the survivor girl after everyone left the house, or were we just seeing him creep around for the hell of it? While I like having to think a bit during movies, I also like having some of the holes filled in neatly, and this movie left too many unsolved questions for my liking.

Posted by oracle at 7:50 PM | Comments (0)

redhead? check. 27? check.

Mike and I were watching the third season of Will and Grace last night, and I was surprised to hear Grace throw out that she was 27. She can't be 27; I'm 27. In some ways I feel like she should be much older than that, and in others I feel like I'm much older than her. I miss the days of being the same age as Buffy.

Posted by oracle at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2007

Identity

Mike and I watched Identity last night for my birthday. I didn't expect much from it other than a couple hours of entertainment, but it went way beyond that. The premise was fantastic, the casting was excellent, and the ending took me completely by surprise.

*** SPOILERS ***

Up until they wheeled the prisoner into the room for the impromptu hearing, I thought the prisoner Ray Liotta's character was transporting was the prisoner they were waiting for, and I couldn't figure out why the description for the movie said they were trying to figure out the killer's identity when it was clearly Ray Liotta's prisoner. I was surprised when we learned that all the people at the motel were different "voices" in Malcom Rivers' head, and I think the way that scene was handled was very well done. I didn't suspect that Ray Liotta wasn't a cop until Amanda Peet's character saw the radio missing from the cop car and found the file with his mug shot in it, but after I saw that, I understood why there was blood and a small hole on the back of his shirt earlier in the movie. At the time I had commented on it to Mike but didn't even consider the possibility that Ray Liotta might not be who he said he was.

At the end of the movie, Mike mentioned that he had expected Ray Liotta to pop up at the last minute. That was something else I hadn't considered, but once he said it, it made sense. Because of that, I wasn't surprised when Amanda Peet turned up the 1 key in her orange grove, although I was surprised to see that the killer was the little boy. After the car exploded, I just assumed he had died and didn't think about him as a possible suspect.

Posted by oracle at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2007

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Mike and I watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with the kids Saturday night. I loved the first Fantastic Four movie, and this one wasn't a disappointment, either. In fact, I thought it was a fantastic (heh) follow up to the first movie. I've never read any of the FF comic books, so I don't know how true any of the details are to the original stories, but I really enjoyed the movie.

PS: Johnny Storm? Such a hottie.

Posted by oracle at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)

December 2, 2007

Wizard's First Rule

This isn't new news, but I'm just finding out about it. Sam Raimi is going to be directing a tv mini-series of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, starting with the first book, Wizard's First Rule. This makes me almost as happy as finding out about The Dark is Rising. All my favorite fantasy stories are being translated to film!

Posted by oracle at 8:29 PM | Comments (5)

horror night - December '07

Last night was our monthly horror movie night. We started off with Audition, a Japanese horror flick Fantm had been talking about for a couple of months, and finished with Skinwalkers, a werewolf movie Mike wanted to see.

*** SPOILERS ***

Audition is about a widower who is trying to find a new wife by holding auditions. I guess I was expecting it to be something along the lines of Ringu or Ju-on, which it wasn't. The ending was pretty horrific, but, with a few exceptions, most of the movie was build-up to that point. Predictably, I couldn't watch the torture part. Turning my head away from the tv didn't help much, though, because the sound effects were just as horrible. The sound of the wire cutting through his ankle was AWFUL. Like Bug, the ending to Audition was confusing. I couldn't tell if it was all real and he was just having flashbacks because of the pain he was in or if it was all a weird dream.

Skinwalkers was pretty predictable but not bad, even though the werewolves were Hollywood werewolves. I think werewolves in movies should be actual wolves with paws and all, not people made up to look like wolf-creatures. Similarly, I am not thrilled with the way Hollywood vampires seem to be moving away from normal fangs and shifting to the shark-teeth fangs we saw in 30 Days of Night. Werewolves should be actual wolves, and vampires should have four fangs - two on top, two on the bottom. Period. So let it be written, so let it be done, amen. But I digress. As I was saying, Skinwalkers wasn't bad. Some of the acting could've been better, and I would've been happier if more of the good werewolves had lived, but overall it was pretty decent. A lot of the actors looked familiar, but the only one I could place was Jason Behr, but Maddy and D said that the guy who played Casey Jones in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies was also in Skinwalkers. My TMNT knowledge is non-existent these days, so I'll take their word for it. Maddy and I talked about crocheting while we watch the movies, so it might turn into a crochet/horror movie night. We shall see.

Posted by oracle at 7:57 PM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2007

The Thing

Mike and I watched John Carpenter's The Thing last night, and it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

*** SPOILERS ***

The movie didn't scare me at all, although there were a couple parts that made me jump. I hated the part with the dogs, which is no surprise to anyone who knows me, but at least it answered my "Why are they trying to shoot the dog?" question from the beginning of the movie. I was totally wrong about who the imposter was, and the scene where the head drips off the table then sprouts spider legs and tries to escape made me queasy. Ick.

Posted by oracle at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2007

The Return

Mike and I got The Return with Sarah Michelle Gellar from Netflix on Tuesday, and we watched it last night after we got home from my physical therapy appointment. I first saw the trailer for this when we went to see Saw 3, and it really caught my attention. The trailer looked creepy enough that I wanted see the movie in a theater, but for some reason or another, it didn't work out that way. After watching it last night, I don't mind telling you that I'm glad we didn't pay money to see it. I don't count The Return as one of the suckiest movies evar (Deep Impact, I'm looking at YOU), but I don't think it came anywhere close to achieving its potential, either.

*** SPOILERS ***

The acting didn't click and seemed half-hearted in parts. The movie built up the murderer, but the scene where SMG learned his identity was anti-climatic, as were the scenes where he was chasing her. I felt like I was supposed to feel connected to the characters, but I just didn't; they didn't seem real enough for me to empathize with them. I didn't mind the way all the loose ends were tied up in the last few minutes of the movie - in fact, I liked the way the accident explained why SMG had seen the accident earlier and why those things were happening to her - but the "I'll come back to you some day" line (or whatever it was exactly - I don't remember it verbatim) was a bit much for me. As I mentioned earlier, I got the impression from the trailer that this was a very scary movie, but I wasn't scared at all while watching the movie, not even the eensiest bit. That disappoints me greatly.

Posted by oracle at 7:34 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2007

The Mist

After much anticipation, Mike and I went to see The Mist at an early show Saturday morning, and I liked it just as much as did 1408.

*** SPOILERS ***

The plot was a fantastic adaption from the story. While there were changes here and there (the most major change is the way the movie ends), I don't feel those changes detracted from the story at all. In fact, I think they added to it in such a way that I like both versions equally. I thought the acting was excellent as well. As you may or may not recall, I loved Thomas Jane in The Punisher, and I wasn't disappointed by his performance in this movie, either. Marcia Gay Haden was perfect for the role of Mrs. Carmody. She did such an excellent job of playing a zealot that I was ready to cheer when she got beaned with a can of peas, and when she finally died, I was elated. I spent the entire movie trying to figure out what else I had seen Laurie Holden in. It wasn't until Mike and I were talking about the movie on the way home and one of us mentioned Silent Hill that it clicked for me. There were a lot of other familiar faces in the movie (William Sadler from Roswell, Andre Braugher from Glory, Chris Owen from Van Wilder, Can't Hardly Wait, She's All That, and American Pie), and I think they did a very good job with the casting. The cinematography was perfect for the atmosphere of the movie, and the music really added to the atmosphere as well.

(Note: In the movie, Thomas Jane's character is an artist, and as the movie starts we see him working on a painting that looks very much like a gunslinger from Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I thought that was a nice touch.)

There were only two changes to the story that I thought detracted a little bit, although they certainly didn't ruin the movie for me. The first was the scene where the Army guy explained what might have happened, where the creatures were coming from. I liked the way the story originally had it - the people thought the mist might have something to do with Camp Arrowhead, but they didn't have any proof either way. The other change I didn't like was when Thomas Jane's character went back to his house to check on his wife. In the original version, they just got the hell out of the town without wasting gas or time to go check on people, and I think that was more in keeping with the uncertain nature of the story.

Posted by oracle at 4:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2007

Hostel 2

I watched maybe half of the first Hostel (the rest I squinted at as I occasionally peeked through my fingers), so I expected this one to be just as brutal, although it really wasn't as bad. I only covered my eyes a couple of times, none of which were for very long, either. The beginning was surprising and gross, as were a couple of parts throughout the rest of the movie, but overall it seemed to be more plot-driven than it was gory.

*** SPOILERS ***

Mike and I pegged the girl who would be the survivor a few minutes into her first scene. We also pegged the first victim, but that wasn't hard. By the time they finally got around to killing her, I was ready to cut her throat myself. The ending kind of surprised me: I didn't think they'd let her buy her way out of the warehouse, nor did I expect her to lop off that guy's cock and balls. I would have tried to talk them into making the bloodhound tattoo into a dachshund, though.

Posted by oracle at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

When we got this movie from Netflix, I didn't know anything about it other than Mike wanted to see it because he'd read about it in Fangoria and it had Alan Rickman in it. As it turned out, the only other actor I recognized was Dustin Hoffman, who played a perfumer past his prime.

*** SPOILERS ***

I thought this was supposed to be a horror movie because it was featured in Fangoria, but in spite of the title, the murders themselves didn't seem to be the main focus of the movie. They seemed more like an undercurrent in the main character's quest to capture a person's scent, which was more interesting than I would have thought it could be.

Posted by oracle at 4:17 PM | Comments (1)

November 20, 2007

Smokin' Aces

Mike and I Netflixed Smokin' Aces and watched it over the weekend, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. I mean, I knew I was going to like seeing Ryan Reynolds in it, but I didn't expect to enjoy the movie itself as much as I did.

*** SPOILERS ***

I did figure out part of the twist at the end (that Primo Sparazza was Freeman Heller), but there were still plenty of surprises in the movie. I had no clue that Buddy Israel was Primo Sparazza's son, I thought Lazlo Soot was killing Buddy's entourage so he could get to Buddy for the reward, I didn't expect Ben Affleck's character to be killed off as soon as he was, and until Ray Liotta's charcter realized that the security guy he was in the elevator with was a hit man, I didn't think he was going to be killed off.

Posted by oracle at 8:46 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2007

Stephen King is slowly reeling me in

I read a few of his books a while ago, but his writing style was hard for me to appreciate; with the exception of Rose Madder, it wore on me and grated as the stories progressed. Lately I've found myself appreciating his stories more, though. It began when Mike and I saw 1408. I liked the movie so much that I wanted to read the story it was based on. Mike didn't have that particular short story book, but shortly after that he picked up two of Stephen King's other short story books, Skeleton Crew and Night Shift. I pounced on them, thinking one of them was the book "1408" was in. I realized that wasn't the case after a quick glance through the each table of contents (and a conversation with Mike, just to make sure I hadn't missed it), but, in spite of that, I decided to read Skeleton Crew because "The Mist" is the first story in the book. (Mike and I saw the trailer for that recently, and I really want to see the movie when it comes out, partly because it looks interesting, and partly because Thomas Jane is in it.) "The Mist" hooked me after the first few pages, and I took Skeleton Crew with me everywhere, cracking it open whenever I had a few minutes to spare. After I had burned through Skeleton Crew, I started on Night Shift and went through that book just as quickly. The short story of "'Salem's Lot" motivated me to pick up the novel, which was an interesting story, although, since I initially expected it to be along the same lines as the short story, I wasn't expecting vampires. After finishing that, I ordered Everything's Eventual, the short story collection that "1408" is in, and it cannot get here soon enough.

Posted by oracle at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 5, 2007

DST + Kate = BFF

Yesterday was fantastic. I love the part of DST where we get an extra hour. More time to sleep? Yes, please! As I told Mike last night, the day felt deliciously long. I forgot about the time change until I noticed that one of the clocks was earlier than the others, and when I remembered the DST change I was delighted. We had some friends over Saturday night and watched movies till 2am (Bug and Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon). By the time Mike and I went to bed (two episodes of CSI: NY later), it was well after 3, so for me the extra hour was more than welcome. All day I felt like it was much later than it really was only to find out that I had plenty of time left to get stuff done. That was downright luxurious after a month of feeling like I was always running behind. I finished reading one of Stephen King's book of short stories, got a start on my homework for this week, made a dent in the mountain of laundry, and started tackling the sea of clutter the floor by my side of the bed has turned into.

Posted by oracle at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2007

Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon

We also watched Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon last night. It was an interesting movie. The only actors in the movie that I recognized were both from CSI:Las Vegas - Scott Wilson, the actor who plays Katherine's dad, and Angela Goethals, who had a guest role in Season 6. I expected a spoof more along the lines of Scary Movie, but Behind The Mask was a much more subtle parody of horror movies.

*** SPOILERS ***

Even though it was a parody, the movie did surprise me a few times. When it was time for Leslie's serial killer debut, I knew Tayler (Angela Goethals' character) was going to interfere, but I didn't expect for Leslie to have planned for her to be his victim all along. I thought that was a nice little twist.

Posted by oracle at 4:08 PM | Comments (0)

Bug

We watched Bug with some friends last night, and it was a weird, weird movie.

*** SPOILERS ***

I didn't really think too much of this movie. It started off so slow, and then somewhere around the middle of the movie it picked up speed, but there wasn't much of a transition. It went from painfully slow to flying along without much acceleration in between, which made it hard for me to adjust to. Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr. were the only two actors I remember having seen before, but the guy who played Peter did a great job in his role. He started off all quiet and hesitant, and as the movie progressed he got louder and crazier. The scene where he was pulling out his teeth was almost impossible for me to watch.

I can't decide if the bugs were real or if Peter was just crazy and dragged Agnes (Ashely Judd's character) into madness too. There are some things that give me the impression that they were crazy, but then other things (mainly the fact that the doctor knew about Agnes' missing son) point towards them NOT being crazy. Mike thinks they weren't crazy, that there really was a conspiracy of some sort, but I'm not convinced.

Posted by oracle at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2007

1408

This is my favorite type of horror movie. I consider this every bit as good as Skeleton Key, and I think that was one of the best horror movies I've seen so far. The build-up in this was excellent - by the time the creepy stuff started happening, I was ready to jump out of my skin.

***SPOILERS***

Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack were both fantastic in their roles, and it was neat to watch as John Cusack's character transitioned from being a complete non-believer to someone who's obviously creeped out but trying to stay rational to someone who is 100% freaked the fuck out and wants to leave NOW. The scene near the end with his daughter made me tear up (of course), and I was completely taken by surprise when the room pulled him back after it seemed like he'd gotten away. Because of that, I didn't believe that he really had gotten out until the credits started rolling. I kept expecting the scene to shift suddenly as we found out that it was another trick. After seeing this, I'm really impatient to read the Stephen King story it's based on.

Posted by oracle at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2007

30 Days of Night

Mike is a HUGE fan of the 30 Days of Night comic books, written by Steve Niles, and he was thrilled when he found out it was being made into a movie. We went to see it on Saturday with Maddy and D, but unlike Mike and D, neither Maddy or I had read any of the comic books beforehand.

*** SPOILERS ***

I really liked the movie. The story was great, and the effects were done well. It never occurred to me that Alaska would be vamp heaven in the winter, but that makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn't they want to go somewhere they didn't have to worry about sleeping for a month?

Josh Hartnett played the main character, Eben. He's very pretty to look at, but I don't think he has much of a character range. It took me at least 1/3 of the movie to figure out where I recognized the actress who played his wife, Stella, from, and once I had it, I mentally kicked myself for not getting it sooner: Melissa George was Molly on Roar. Ugh. There goes my fangrrl status. I wish the ending had been different, but that wasn't the way the story went in the comics, and I'm glad they stuck so close to the original plot. The only thing I was disappointed in was the vampires' fangs. I like vampires to have the regular vampire fangs, like in Underworld, but the 30 Days of Night vamps had a mouthful of shark teeth. That will change when I am in charge, you know.

As soon as we got home, I tracked down all of Mike's trade paperbacks and settled down to read the original stories. I was pleasantly surprised to see how close the movie had stuck to the comic books, and I'm hoping they make the second series, Dark Days, into a movie too.

Posted by oracle at 7:55 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

Rob Zombie's Halloween - (the remake)

Mike and I went to see this last night, and it was pretty good. I am paranoid about not getting to the theater with enough time to get our tickets, any snacks we might want, and get seated before the previews start (I love watching the previews, Mike hates them), but in spite of my certainty that leaving the house with 15 minutes was not going to give us enough time, it did. (I did miss the first part of the previews, but that's because I was wishy-washy about getting a snack until after we'd given the usher our tickets and were on our way to sit down. And even with the long line at the concession stand, I still made it back in time to catch the previews for The Mist and 30 Days of Night, both of which look very interesting. Also in upcoming movie news - I saw the poster for The Dark is Rising, and staring at it was the highlight of my time spent waiting in various lines.) As far as the actual movie went, I liked it. I haven't seen any of the original Halloween movies, so I don't have any baseline or reference point to compare it to, however, the movie effectively creeped me out to the point that I scurried up the stairs as fast as I could after turning off the lights before bed because I am no fool - I just spent two+ hours watching Michael Meyers detach himself from shadows and noiselessly go after his next unsuspecting vicitm. Hell if it's going to be me.

Posted by oracle at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2007

my nerdly heart is going to explode

Mike called me a few minutes ago to let me know that Disney is going to be making the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia books into movies and will be releasing one each May beginning in 2008 and concluding in 2013. Currently, Prince Caspian is scheduled to be released on May 16, 2008, and Voyage of the Dawn Treader (one of my favorite books of the series) is set for May 1, 2009. I don't know how much more of this bookly glee I can take!

Posted by oracle at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)

my fangrrl glee is somewhat tarnished

As excited as I am about the The Dark is Rising movie (67 days till it's in theaters!), I am alarmed by some of what I have been reading about the adaptation, particularly this bit:

The planned film diverges from the book on several fundamental points, including the decision to rewrite Will Stanton's character to change him from an eleven-year-old English boy to a fourteen-year-old American boy, significant changes to the mythological structure of the plot, re-setting the story to occur in the present-day, and the addition of a brother of Will's as a potential "Judas" character among them.

I don't really think changing Will's age is a huge deal (although that does have some impact on the story since part of the reason it's such a big deal that Will is an Old One is because he's so young), and setting it in the present isn't too major either, but changing the setting from England to AMERICA?!? That changes the whole premise of the story! Arthurian mythology is heavily woven into the series, and America is NOT the country where Arthur lived. Arthur is not supposed to come back to AMERICA in a time of great trouble, he's supposed to come back to ENGLAND to save his people. Who are ENGLISH. This change affects not just this book, but the entire series, especially The Grey King and Silver on the Tree. In both of those stories the setting (location) is pivotal. Being in England is CRITICAL to the plot. You can't just change the setting and expect everything to be the same. America is a great country and all, but it doesn't have the same atmosphere (or culture) as England, and that's important, dammit! If the location wasn't changed in the remake of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, why was it necessary to change it for The Dark is Rising? Bah.

Posted by oracle at 7:37 AM | Comments (2)

July 29, 2007

the Dark is Rising

Sweet tiny baby Moses. My brother just called to tell me that The Dark is Rising is being made into a movie! And it's supposed to be released this year! (October 5, to be exact.) How did I not hear about this until now? I LOVE that series. As far as I'm concerned, it's easily on par with the Chronicles of Narnia, the Sword of Truth, and the Wheel of Time as one of my favorite fantasy series. In retrospect it's probably for the best that I'm just finding out about this now, because had I known earlier, it would have been hard for me to wait patiently. As it is, October seems too far away. Seriously, y'all. The Dark? Is rising.

When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.

Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.

Posted by oracle at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2007

I like themes

Mike and I have planned Movie Nights for tonight and tomorrow, and given the current Harry Potter events (last book, new movie), both nights are going to be Harry Potter-themed. We're going to watch the first two Harry Potter movies tonight, and tomorrow we'll watch the third and fourth movies. I polled the kids to find out what their favorite "movie theater" candy, drinks, and snacks were so we can have a "concession stand" both nights (I'm going to see if I can pick up some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans too), and on Saturday we're going to have a "movie theater dinner" with hot dogs and nachos in between the two movies. After we're all caught up on the Harry Potter timeline, we're going to surprise the kids on Sunday and take them to the theater to see the fifth movie.

Posted by oracle at 9:09 AM | Comments (2)

July 21, 2007

that Potter boy

Mike bought me the new Harry Potter book while we were at Best Buy today, and I just finished it about half an hour ago. Originally I wasn't going to buy it - I was going to wait until the library had it and check it out from there instead - but we passed by a display of the pretty hardbacks with their colorful covers and their shiny new book smells, and when Mike told me he was going to buy one for me, I couldn't say no. I started it shortly after we got home, and I just finished it a few minutes ago. I'm going to get into what I think about the Deathly Hallows later, but for now I'll give a little (a lot) backstory about me and Harry Potter.

When the first book came out, I could not have cared less about it or him. I thought it was kind of funny that so many people were getting so into it, but that was about all the thought I put into it at the time. Then, as more of the books came out and more people got into it, I started getting annoyed - I couldn't go ANYWHERE without hearing about Harry Potter, and the fans weren't laid-back about it all. They were fucking RABID, talking Harry Potter up like it was the best series ever written, bar none, and that grated on me. Even my brother got caught up. He was the cause of my first personal exposure to the series, in the form of the movies. The first Harry Potter movie was scheduled to come out right around his birthday, and because he was a HUGE fan (and I was notoriously bad about wrapping presents), I decided to take him to see it for his birthday: he'd get to see a movie he was extremely anxious to see and get a great birthday present, and I wouldn't have to wrap anything - perfection! I didn't hate the movie, but it didn't exactly suck me in, either. While I put aside some of my hate for Harry, I stayed a little aloof, unsure of whether or not I wanted to give the series any more of a try than that. The following year the second Harry Potter movie was on the horizon. Since taking my brother to the first one had been such a success, I took him to the second one for his birthday that year, with the same results. By that point I no longer hated Potter, but I still wasn't ready to don a Hogwarts shirt or wizard hat. We had plans to do the same thing the next year for the third movie, but when November rolled around, they foiled my brilliant birthday plan and pushed the release date back to the following summer. The cycle was broken (and I had to find another idea for a birthday present). After I met Mike, the kids reintroduced Harry Potter into my life. A and Z were both hardcore fans, and N was interested in the series as well, although not quite as much as his older brothers. I held out for a couple more years, but when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in 2005, I caved. I decided to read the first book and see how I liked it. That coincided with my start at my new job, so while I was waiting to get set up with a computer and an account and all that good stuff, I brought Harry Potter along to keep me company. It only took me a couple of days to finish the first book, and that was the beginning of the end for me. For the rest of that week and part of the next, the only things I brought to work with me were the Harry Potter books, and I read them every chance I could. I finally understood why so many people liked the series. I still didn't (and don't) think it's the Best Series Evar (I'm still partial to the Chronicles of Narnia, the Dark is Rising, the Wheel of Time, and the Sword of Truth), but I do think it's much better than I initially gave it credit for. With that said, I'm a little sad to the series come to an end, although I do think it's best to end things like this while they are still good, instead of dragging them out until they're limping along, barely breathing anymore.

Posted by oracle at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

July 2, 2007

Clerks II

We watched this on Saturday, and I have to admit, it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I haven't seen Clerks yet, so I don't know how it compares as a sequel, but I didn't hate it like I thought I would.

Posted by oracle at 1:22 PM | Comments (0)

King Kong

We watched the remake of King Kong yesterday afternoon, and, as far as I am concerned, that will be the ONLY time I watch this movie. I cried through at least half of the damn thing, in spite of Mike's assurances that they had changed the story in this remake. The Kong/Anne interaction in the jungle choked me up, when he was reaching out for her after they captured him KILLED me, and my cold Grinch heart shattered into a bajillion pieces when he was looking for her in New York and then again after he found her and they were up on the building. The special effects were fantastic, the cast was a perfect selection (I really liked Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody in their roles, and Jack Black played his character well, even though I didn't like him much); the movie was very well done as a whole, but I cannot sit through it again. Not without leaving the room for the majority of it, anyways.

Posted by oracle at 7:01 AM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season Six - the guest list

listy goodness after the jump

Episode 2 - Silas Weir Mitchell: a guest spot on Season 2 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 3 - Skye McCole Bartusiak: The Patriot
Episode 3 - Hudson Leick: Callisto from "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"
Episode 3 - Alan Rachins: a guest spot on "Lois & Clark"
Episode 4 - Daniel Graves: guest spot on "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 4 - Clea DuVall: Buffy! (Marcie in Out of Mind, Out of Sight)
Episode 4 - Tomas Arana: a guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 5 - Don Michael Paul: a guest spot on Season 2 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 6 - Amy Sloan: The Day After Tomorrow, Gothika
Episode 7 & 8 - A Martinez: a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven" and "Columbo"
Episode 7 & 8 - Sophia Santi: a guest spot on "Lois & Clark"
Episode 9 - Hal Sparks: Spider-Man 2, a guest spot on "Lois & Clark"
Episode 9 - Jessica Collins: a guest spot on "Lois & Clark"
Episode 9 - Paula Trickey: one of the bike cops from "Pacific Blue"
Episode 9 - Dane Northcutt: a guest spot on Season 2 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 9 - Baily Chase: Buffy! (Graham Miller, Seasons 4 - 5)
Episode 10 - Lori Alan: a guest spot on "Will & Grace"
Episode 10 (& 19) - Aimee Graham: reprised her role from Season 5 (Grave Danger: Part Two)
Episode 11 - Chaney Kley: Buffy! (Chad from Real Me)
Episode 11 - Elizabeth Pryor Nagel: a guest spot on "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 12 - Mitch Pileggi: Skinner from "The X-FIles"
Episode 12 - Joe Manganiello: Spider-Man
Episode 14 - Susanna Thompson: Roar! (Gwyneth in Daybreak)
Episode 14 - Willaim Sadler: "Roswell"
Episode 15 - Melinda Clarke: reprised her role from Seasons 2 (Slaves of Las Vegas) & 3 (Lady Heather's Box)
Episode 18 - Douglas Smith: a guest spot on Season 2 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 19 - Shonda Farr: reprised her role from Season 1 (Evaluation Day)
Episode 19 - Keri Lynn Pratt: reprised her role from Season 1 (Evaluation Day)
Episode 20 - Travis Barker: Blink 182/+44
Episode 20 - Shanna Moakler: another one of the bike cops from "Pacific Blue"
Episode 21 - Rachel Miner: The Black Dahlia
Episode 21 - Alex Skuby: Buffy! (Vincent from Bad Girls)
Episode 21 - Dave Power: Buffy! (Zack from All The Way)
Episode 22 - Julie Benz: Buffy! (Darla)
Episode 22 - Judd Nelson: The Breakfast Club
Episode 23 & 24 - Currie Graham: a guest spot in Season 1 (as a different character), guest spot on Season 2 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 23 - Thad Luckinbill: Buffy! (R.J. from Him)
Episode 24 - Scott Michael Campbell: "Christy"
Episode 24 - Teal Redmann: reprised her role from Season 5

Posted by oracle at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2007

Ghost Rider

Mike and I watched Ghost Rider Tuesday night. As with so many lately, I didn't love it, didn't hate it - it was just a decent movie. The storyline was okay (although I am tired of romance being written into movies where it does not belong and does nothing to enhance either the story or the movie overall), the effects were okay, and the actors did a decent job. Sam Elliot and Donal Logue were my favorites, but I don't think Nicholas Cage did a bad job as Johnny Blaze. (I can't be considered a Nicholas Cage fan by any stretch of the imagination, so for me to give him even that much is pretty impressive.)

*** SPOILERS ***

My favorite part in the whole movie was when Johnny and Carter Slade were both riding out to San Venganza - playing Ghost Riders in the Sky at that point was a nice touch. Mike thought this was a better comic-book-to-movie adaptation than The Punisher, but I liked The Punisher better, which may be because I haven't read any of the comics for either character, so I don't have the same foundation he does.

Posted by oracle at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2007

Fun With Dick and Jane

There was a small Netflix wait for Ghost Rider, so Mike and I got Fun With Dick and Jane to watch in the interim. Can't waste any of our precious Netflix time, you know! Anyways, the movie wasn't bad, although I'm glad I didn't buy it.

*** SPOILERS ***

Sure, there were some funny moments (like when Jane woke up with a muddy handprint on her pajama top, right over her boob - that's such a Mike thing to do it made me laugh) and the ending made me tear up (OF COURSE), but most of the movie just didn't click for me; it felt like I was sitting there, waiting for it to pick up. It seems like it takes FOREVER for things to go downhill when everything is going well for Dick in the beginning, and, likewise, it seems to take FOREVER for things to pick back up after the big crash. Mike dubbed it a good popcorn movie, and I agree.

Posted by oracle at 7:25 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth

Mike and I watched Pan's Labyrinth last Wednesday. I'd heard a lot of talking about it, but nothing very conclusive, so I really wasn't sure what to expect; I didn't even remember hearing that it had subtitles. Overall I thought the movie was okay. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

*** SPOILERS ***

(Thank Mike, because if it weren't for him, this warning wouldn't be here. I am thoughtless like that.)

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe has spoiled me for fauns in movies; I thought the faun in this movie looked downright creepy, and I kept expecting him to turn out to be a bad guy. (I'm still not entirely sure whether or not he was a bad guy; I can't tell if the ending was showing that Ofelia was really the princess after all or if it was just her mind wandering as she died.) I wasn't expecting it to be bloody at all, but there were a couple scenes that I had to look away from, cringing, and, even though I understood that it's a grown-up fairy tale and those are typically less fluffy bunny than the kiddie versions, I didn't think Ofelia's step-dad would kill her. To sum up: I didn't think it was a bad movie - it just isn't one I'm going to want to watch again. Bleak movies usually don't make their way to my replay list.

Posted by oracle at 10:20 AM | Comments (2)

The Messengers

I wanted to see The Messengers ever since I first saw the previews for it. Mike and I finally watched it last night, and I'm a bit disappointed. I think the story was such that I could've really enjoyed the movie, but the way it turned out felt like it was just a copy of a bunch of movies. There was a lot about it that just didn't click for me, like the cast's chemistry and interaction. I think Dylan McDermott is pretty hot, but for the most part it was hard for me to buy that they were a family. While some of the scary parts were creepy (one of them actually sent me ducking under the covers), even those weren't as good as they could have been. With all that said, it successfully creeped me out enough that I scampered downstairs to turn off the lights and set the alarm, and when I got back upstairs I was not happy to see that one of the lights was still on. For a few seconds my imagination tried to convince me that something had turned it back on after I turned it off, which resulted in me racing downstairs, surveying the room to make sure there was nothing waiting to pull me into the floor, turning of the light, and racing back upstairs as quickly as possible.

ETA: Holy hell. I just learned that Penelope Ann Miller was Brenda in Adventures in Babysitting. I don't think I would've ever put the two together on my own. Wow.

Posted by oracle at 8:18 AM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007

That'll be two large tacos, a burrito and a medium 'Gir, take us back to the base right now.' Would you like a drink with that?

I'd heard plenty about Invader Zim before, but nothing about it caught my interest until Mike picked up the boxed set (last week) and we watched some of the episodes with the kids (this past weekend). Now? I'm hooked. The show is hilarious. Zim is voiced by the guy that voiced Dag from the Angry Beavers (spoot!), and he does an equally good job of voicing Zim. GIR, Dib, and Gaz, are all good too. In a nutshell, I can't help but like a show that has lines like "I told you would forever rue the day you messed with ZIM! Now, begin your ruing! I'll just sit here and watch." I'm just sad that I got into Zim too late to pick up an "Obey Pastulio!" shirt.

Posted by oracle at 7:05 AM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season Five - the verdict

I like all of the seasons we've watched so far, but Season Five may be my favorite, in spite of Ecklie splitting up the team. The two-part season finale (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) was good, and I really liked the way they handled the 4x4 episode.

Posted by oracle at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season Five - the guest list

Episode 1 - French Stewart: Harry from "3rd Rock From the Sun"
Episode 3 - D.B. Woodside: Buffy! (Principal Wood, Season 7) and a guest spot on CSI: Miami, Season 1 (ep 12)
Episode 3 - Larry Joshua: Spider-Man
Episode 3 - Aisha Tyler: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 5 - Dina Meyer: "Birds of Prey" (Batgirl/The Oracle/Barbara Gordon) and Saw 1 - 3
Episode 5 - Doug Savant: "Desperate Housewives" (this one is a total Mike catch. I'm still DH clueless, so the only cast members I would recognize are the main 4 chicks.)
Episode 6 - Summer Glau: "Firefly" and Serenity
Episode 7 - Danica Stewart: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 11)
Episode 7 - John Tenney: Tombstone and a guest spot on "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman"
Episode 8 - Lindsay Crouse: Buffy! (Professor Maggie Walsh, Season 4)
Episode 8 - Sarah Buxton: I cannot figure out where I've seen her before, but I know I have. Maddening!
Episode 8 - Sam Anderson: "Angel" (Holland Manners, Seasons 1 - 2), guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 1)
Episode 8 - Don McManus: guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami" (ep 18), a guest spot on Dawson's Creek, Hannibal
Episode 9 - Jason London: Dazed and Confused, Mallrats
Episode 9 - Nana Visitor: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"
Episode 10 - Mae Whitman: Hope Floats
Episode 10 - Lobo Sebastian: Next Friday
Episode 10 - Michael Bryan French: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
Episode 11 - Sebastian Roche: Roar! (Longinus)
Episode 11 - Ted Rooney: "Gilmore Girls" (Morey)
Episode 11 - Catherine Dent: Someone Like You
Episode 17 - Stephen Baldwin
Episode 17 - Wil Wheaton: "Star Trek: the Next Generation"
Episode 20 - Donna Murph: SpiderMan 2
Episode 20 - Teal Redmann: "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 20 - Eric Allan Kramer: "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman"
Episode 21 - Robin Weigert: Calamity Jane from "Deadwood"
Episode 21 - Chris Williams: Dodgeball
Episode 23 - Kim Johnston Ulrich: "3rd Rock From the Sun"
Episode 24 - Frank Gorshin: That Darn Cat, the Riddler from the old Batman series
Episode 24 - Michael Bacall: Buffy! (Eric from "Some Assembly Required) and Grindhouse (Death Proof)

Posted by oracle at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 5 - the (almost) half-time review

Thus far Season 5 has validated my decision to watch shows as they're released on dvd so I can watch an entire season all the way through, if necessary. I'm a pretty interactive viewer anyways so getting extremely pissed off at characters is nothing new for me, but I really wanted to throttle Conrad Ecklie. He's so focused on politics and appearances that he doesn't care about the lab or its cases, and splitting up Gil's team was inexcusable. There was quite a bit of sputtering and indignant squeaking from my spot during that episode.

Posted by oracle at 7:56 AM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2007

God's gonna sit this one out

Mike's a pretty big fan of the Punisher comics, so when he saw The Punisher dvd the other day, he had to pick it up. We watched it tonight, and I enjoyed the movie a lot more than I thought I would. I mean, I didn't think I'd hate it or anything, but I didn't think I'd love it either, which I totally did. I went into this with very limited knowledge of the Punisher (read: only the little bit Mike's told me as he reads the comic books), so I think it was easier for me to get into the movie since I didn't know how things should be. Predictably, I HATED the scene where his entire family died. I get that it had to happen because it's part of the Punisher backstory, but, sweet Bridget, that was hard to watch. (Also hard to watch? The scene where one of the bad guys is trying to convince a guy to give up the Punisher's whereabouts by ripping out his facial piercings. :cringe:) And, Thomas Jane as Frank Castle? Hot. I'm looking forward to seeing the second Punisher movie more than I'm looking forward to seeing Spider-Man 3. (Mike: "Sacrilege!")

Posted by oracle at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

we'll be together forever

A virus is the cause of Mike's misery, so the doctor sent us home with prescriptions for an antibiotic and a mega-strength decongestant. We wandered around while we waited for the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions and picked up the new Megadeath cd (Mike), The Punisher dvd (also Mike), and Reincarnation (me), and after the prescriptions were ready we went to Outback for dinner before going home. It started pouring while we were eating, and it was still raining pretty hard when we left, so we went straight home, where I did the rain dance with Jordan. After the puppies and I slogged in, Mike put in Reincarnation (original title: Rinne), and holy hell, y'all, I cannot recall ever having been that scared during a movie. I thought Ju-On and Ringu were pretty scary, but this one leaves those two waaaay behind. I was terrified after it ended, so we watched Demolition Man for a change of pace. I was much calmer after watching that, until Mike started scaring me. It began when he was coming back upstairs with a glass of water for me and walked slowly up the stairs (for dramatic effect, he says). All I know is that one minute the dogs were lying beside me quietly while I'm poking around online and the next minute they all picked their up heads and started growling at the dark hallway outside our bedroom. Naturally, I screamed. Twice. Which Mike thought was hilarious, so he apparently decided to scare me even more after we were in bed by rehashing Reincarnation, talking about all the dead people in the trees, and telling me it was a good thing I didn't have to walk by any trees so I wouldn't have to worry about the dead people getting me. It took me a long time to get to sleep.

Posted by oracle at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

May 6, 2007

the list is long and distinguished

What a fantastic evening. Mike and I went to Tyler and Amy's for a Cinco de Mayo get-together, and we had a great time hanging out with them and another couple they're friends with and enjoying some awesome food. Yay for Mexican (and Jewish?) holidays! Also, yay for snuggly wiener dogs. The other couple brought their adorable doxie with them, and I stole him for, like, half the time we were there.

After we got home, Mike and I watched The Illusionist. Wow. It sounded interesting enough that it made it on our "to watch" list, but I had no idea how good it was going to be. The ending completely surprised me, although Mike had it nailed before it happened, and I thought that overall the movie was well done. I've liked Edward Norton since I saw him in American History X, and I think Jessica Biel is attractive now that she's not on Seventh Heaven anymore. The guy who played the prince looked and sounded familiar, and I couldn't figure out where I'd seen him before. I puzzled over that for the whole movie before giving in and looking him up on IMBD.com...turns out he played Kate Winslet's ex-boyfriend in The Holiday. It's a good thing I looked it up because I doubt I'd have figured that out on my own.

Posted by oracle at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2007

The Holiday

I really liked this movie. There wasn't anything really original in it, and I'm not a fan of Cameron Diaz as a general rule, but both Jude Law and Jack Black were extremely endearing, and somehow it all came together in a nice little movie that's perfect for watching on an anniversary trip.

Posted by oracle at 8:26 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

fifty men on a dead man's chest

I was torn about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I wanted to see it but I was skeptical at the same time, hesitant to watch a sequel that I didn't think would hit the same mark as the first one. We Netflix'd Netflix'd it to watch with the kids over the weekend, and when we watched it on Saturday I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it, in spite of Orlando Bloom (I've had a hard time liking him after seeing him in Troy).

***SPOILERS***

Jack Davenport (Norrington) made me laugh several times, the interaction between Will and his dad made me tear up, and Kiera Knightly's character made me grind my teeth (leaving the chest so she wouldn't be left out while the guys were fighting was stupid, and it really irked me that she didn't just tell Will why she kissed Jack). I'm looking forward to seeing PotC: At World's End. Hopefully it won't be the disappointment I thought this one was going to be.

Posted by oracle at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2007

the newest Bond

Holy hell is Daniel Craig hot in Casino Royale. We watched it last night, and he is, without a doubt, my favorite Bond. The movie was good too; even though I knew Bond wasn't going to die, I was still caught up in the suspense. I kinda thought he was going to give up the password and was happy when he didn't. Yay, Bond! And I was extremely upset at the way things with Vesper played out.

Posted by oracle at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2007

snow, corned beef, and Buffy

The entire time I was at work on Friday it was rainy, cold, and overall icky. While I got groceries and picked up the kids for our weekend with them it was still rainy, cold, and icky, and it stayed that way until an hour or so after we got home. Then it got snowy/sleety, cold, and icky. The snow looked pretty in a thin coating on our deck, but I think that's the only place it stuck in our neighborhood.

Our only observance of St. Patrick's Day was the corned beef and cabbage I made for dinner on Saturday. According to the kids, that was the first time they'd ever had that, and their reactions were mixed: H loved the corned beef and potatoes, but hated the cabbage, carrots, and onions (no surprises there), Z said he wasn't too big on the meal because he doesn't like cabbage, N liked it almost as much Mike does, and I'm not sure how A feels about it (I saved him a bowl since he was at work when we ate, but he'd already eaten when he got home that evening).

Over the weekend we finished watching the first season of Buffy and started on the second. I always forget to what degree I love that show until I'm actually watching it. Even though the acting isn't the best in the beginning (see also: Boreanaz, David) the Buffy/Angel relationship never fails to suck me in emotionally. That relationship is a major part of what made seasons 1 - 3 my favorites. As we watched When She Was Bad yesterday I cringed every time she snapped into him and teared up when he told her he missed her, and it's only going to go downhill as we watch the rest of the second season, particularly What's My Line: Parts 1 and 2, Surprise, Innocence, and Becoming: Parts 1 and 2 (some of my favorite episodes, hands down). They were painful to watch when they first aired, and they've been even more painful to watch every time I've seen them since then because now I know how it all ends - I'm no longer able to cling to the hope that the writers will fix it all in the end, that Buffy and Angel will somehow find a way to stay together. Thank God for fanfic.

Posted by oracle at 5:51 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 4 - the guests

Episode 1 - Rudolf Martin: Buffy! (Dracula in Buffy vs. Dracula)
Episode 1 - Nichole Hiltz: Buffy! (Diana in Seeing Red)
Episode 3 - Stephen Root: Office Space, Dodgeball
Episode 3 - M.C. Gainey: The Haunting, The Mighty Ducks
Episode 4 - Chris Mulkey: a guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 4 - Carlos Jacott: Buffy! (he played Ken in Anne)
Episode 5 - Patrick Fischler: The Black Dahlia
Episode 6 - Henry Czerny: Mission Impossible
Episode 7 - Lochlyn Munro: Freddy vs. Jason, Scary Movie, Dead Man on Campus
Episode 10 - Brian Austin Green: 90210
Episode 11 - Sarah Rafferty: a guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 12 - Josh Stamberg: a guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 14 - Jamie Brown: a guest spot on Season 1 of "CSI: Miami"
Episode 14 - Michael Landes: "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman" (he was the first Jimmy Olsen, before Justin Whalin took over)
Episode 15 - Kim Coates: Silent Hill
Episode 15 - D.B. Sweeney: The Cutting Edge
Episode 15 - Nicholas Lea: "The X-Files" (Alex Krycek)
Episode 16 - Rocco Sisto: "The Sopranos"
Episode 16 - Keram Malicki-Sanchez: Buffy! (He was Freddy in Earshot)
Episode 17 - Gina Torres: Angel, "Firefly" and Serenity, "Xena: Warrior Princess," "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys"
Episode 19 - K Callan: "Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman" (Clark's mom)
Episode 20 - Dash Mihok: Romeo + Juliet, "Felicity"
Episode 20 - Steven Culp: "Desperate Housewives" (another Mike pull)
Episode 21 - Will Rothhaar: Buffy! (James from Lie to Me)
Episode 22 - Eddie Kaye Thomas: American Pie/American Pie 2/American Wedding
Episode 23 - George Newburn: Adventures in Babysitting

Posted by oracle at 8:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 3 - the guests

Episode 1 - Cliff De Young: a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 2 - Chad Michael Murray: "One Tree Hill"
Episode 3 - Chris Payne Gilbert: a guest spot on "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 3 - Mary-Margaret Humes: Dawson's mom on "Dawson's Creek"
Episode 4 - Kaarina Aufranc: Buffy! (Nancy from Beneath You)
Episode 5 - Jennifer Sky: Buffy! (Heidi from The Pack)
Episode 5 - Jack McGee: Buffy! (Doug from Becoming: Part 1); also had a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 6 - Michael Chieffo - "Roswell"
Episode 6 - Beth Grant: a guest spot on "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place"
Episode 6 - David Lee Smith: a guest spot on "Pacific Blue"
Episode 6 - Wade Williams: Buffy! (General Gregor from Spiral)
Episode 6 - Phe Caplan: Old School
Episode 7 - Ryan Cutrona: Kuffs! (the florist)
Episode 8 - Sam Hennings: a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 8 - William Mapother: The Grudge
Episode 9 - James MacDonald: Buffy! (Detective Stein in Ted, Becoming: Part One, and Consequences); also a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 9 - Gina Phillips: Jeepers Creepers
Episode 10 - Michael Trucco: "One Tree Hill"
Episode 11 - Chad Lindberg: Buffy! (Dave from I Robot, You Jane)
Episode 11 - Perrey Reeves: Old School
Episode 12 - Joe Ochman: Buffy! (the janitor in Blood Ties)
Episode 12 - Michael O'Keefe: Caddyshack
Epsiode 12 - Joey Slotnick: Hollow Man
Episode 13 - Kevin Chapman: Blow
Episode 13 - Keith David: Where the Heart Is
Episode 14 - Rick Worthy: Nathan from "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 14 - Jeff Kober: Buffy (Zackary Kralik/Rack in Helpless, Wrecked, Villains, Two To Go ); a guest spot on "The Magnificent Seven"
Episode 14 - Devon Gummersall: "My So-Called Life" and "Roswell"
Episode 14 - Leslie Grossman: "Popular"
Episode 15 - Elizabeth Berkley: "Saved by the Bell"
Episode 16 - Tracy Middendorf: "Angel" (she was in the first ep, which is one of the few I saw) and Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Episode 17 - Christopher Gorham: Buffy! (James in I Only Have Eyes For You)
Episode 17 - Jonathan Tucker: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake)
Episode 17 - Jeremy Roberts: Buffy! (Kakistos in Faith, Hope, and Trick); also had a guest spot on "CSI: Miami" (Season One)
Episode 18 - Garret Dillahunt: a recurring role on "Deadwood"
Episode 18 - Sarah Lancaster: a guest spot on "Pacific Blue" and "Saved by the Bell: The New Class"
Episode 19 - Charlie Hofheimer: The Village
Episode 20 - Gilbert Gottfired
Episode 21 - Patrick Fabian: "Saved by the Bell: The College Years"
Episode 21 - Susan Walters: "The Big Easy"
Episode 21 - Lisa Wilhoit: "My So-Called Life"
Episode 21 - Arielle Kebbel: "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 21 - Lee Garlington: Buffy! (Jessica Harris in Hell's Bells)

Posted by oracle at 5:38 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2007

CSI: Miami - the two episode review

I've seen two episodes of CSI: Miami, and I don't hate it like I thought I was going to, but it also hasn't grabbed me like CSI: Las Vegas did. I expected to gnash my teeth every time David Caruso was on the screen, but the only time he got on my nerves was in the beginning of the second ep when he tried to pull off a Gil line. Miami seems more flashy than Las Vegas, which is fine as long as they stick with that and don't try to duplicate Las Vegas. Unless, of course, they're cloning Warrick, in which case I am all for it.

Posted by oracle at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 8, 2007

in which our heroine proclaims her love for the library

The library has the first three seasons of One Tree Hill on dvd. Since I didn't even realize OTH was on its fourth season, I have some serious catching up to do. The library ALSO has seasons 1-6 of CSI: Las Vegas. <3

Posted by oracle at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 2

I liked Season 2 just as much as I liked the first one. Maybe even a little better because Catherine and Sarah didn't annoy me quite as much in this one. Even though Greg's hair started off awful, I'm happy it returned to normal before the end of the season. And I would gladly lick ice cream off of Warrick's stomach. My main complaint is that the little subplots, the ones that deal with the CSI's personal lives, are very choppy. I still don't know what happened with Catherine's child services investigation or that inspector guy she was seeing. The inspector guy made a brief appearance in Episode 5, but that's it. I am not a fan of unanswered questions, ya'll.

Posted by oracle at 12:28 PM | Comments (4)

January 30, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 2 - the guests

Episode 2 - Dale Midkiff: Buck from The Magnificent Seven
Episode 2 - Danielle Nicolet: Caryn from 3rd Rock From the Sun
Episode 3 - David Sutcliffe: Christopher from Gilmore Girls
Episode 3 - Brenda Strong: one of the clan leaders in an episode of Roar
Episode 4 - Christopher Wiehl (also in Episode 14 of this season): Buffy! (Owen from Never Kill a Boy on the First Date)
Episode 4 - Lisa Brenner: she was in The Patriot and had a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 4 - Tess Harper: Fairlight Spencer from Christy
Episode 5 - David DeLuise: Bug from 3rd Rock From the Sun
Episode 6 - Dylan Baker: Spiderman 2
Episode 6 - Jeremy Renner: S.W.A.T.
Episode 7 - Currie Graham: guest spots on Pacific Blue and Witchblade
Episode 8 - Melinde Clarke: guest spot on Xena
Episode 9 - Brigid Brannagh: reprised her Season 1 guest spot role
Episode 9 - Michael Cudlitz: Buffy! (Bob from The Zeppo) Also in D3: The Mighty Ducks
Episode 10 - Nicki Aycox: Jeepers Creepers II
Episode 10 - he was in Spiderman 2 and played Gavin Park on Angel
Episode 10 - Geoffrey Blake: he was in The Last Starfighter and had a recurring guest spot on Renegade
Episode 11 - Marcia Cross: Desperate Housewives
Episode 11 - Kelly Connell: reprised his Season 1 guest spot role
Episode 12 - Amanda Wyss: she was in Silverado and had a recurring guest spot on The Highlander
Episode 12 - Robia LaMorte: Buffy!
Episode 12 - Nick Chinlund: Buffy! (Major Ellis from Into the Woods and Listening to Fear
Episode 14 - Tom Irwin: My So-Called Life
Episode 15 - Janet Gunn: Silk Stalkings
Episode 17 - Bruce McGill: a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 18 - Joseph D. Reitman: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Episode 19 - Doug Hutchison: Batman and Robin
Episode 20 - Diane Farr: Roswell
Episode 20 - Steven Hytner: Roswell
Episode 20 - Ed Lauter: he was in The Rocketeer and had a guest spot on The Magnificent Seven
Episode 21 - Anthony Starke: Ezra from The Magnificent Seven
Episode 22 - Darlene Vogel: Chris from Pacific Blue
Episode 22 - Kari Wuhrer: Anaconda and Sliders
Episode 23 - Bill Sage: American Psycho

Posted by oracle at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)

January 23, 2007

CSI: Las Vegas, Season 1 - the guests

For me part of the fun of watching CSI is the familiar guest stars, although it gets pretty aggravating if I can't remember what else I've seen them in. Here's a list of the ones I recognized from Season 1:
Episode 1 - Krista Allen (also in Episodes 11 and 13 of this season): Billie from "Days of Our Lives" (also in Episodes 11 and 13 of this season)
Episode 5 - Milo Ventimiglia: Jess from "Gilmore Girls"
Episode 5 - Elena Lyons: "USA High"
Episode 5 - Kelly Connell: Buffy! (He was the bug man assassin in both parts of What's My Line)
Episode 6 - Tony Crane: Remy McSwain from USA's "The Big Easy" (I had such a huge crush on him)
Episode 6 (and others) - Pamela Gidley: Brigette from "The Pretender"
Episode 9 - James Avery: Wil's Uncle Phil on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
Episode 9 - Deirdre Quinn: one of the contestants from Miss Congeniality
Episode 10 - Mark Moses: CreePaul from "Desperate Housewives" (Mike gets credit for this one - I still haven't seen a complete DH episode)
Episode 13 - Mark Valley: Jack from "Days of Our Lives" (bonus: He plays Krista Allen's pimp in this ep)
Episode 17 - Brigid Brannagh: the banshee from "Roar"
Episode 21 - W. Earl Brown: Dan from "Deadwood"!
Episode 22 - Shonda Farr: Buffy! (April from I Was Made To Love You)
Episode 23 - Gregg Henry: some dude from The Black Dahlia (we also watched that this weekend) and Logan's dad on "Gilmore Girls"

Posted by oracle at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

CSI: late to the game

I'm not much on tv, so it's not at all unusual for me to hear about a tv show and not have any clue what the fuss is all about. House? Sounds sort of interesting, but not something I'll slit throats to see. Veronica Mars? Eh, I'm still not entirely sure what the show is about. I know Grey's Anatomy has something to do with doctors, but that's where my knowledge stops. And so it goes until I am introduced to a tv show on dvdbecause I love watching shows on dvd. I don't have to deal with commercials, not even to skip through them courtesy of TiVo, and I only have to put up with cliffhangers if it's the season finale' and the next season hasn't been released yet. And so it goes with my newest tv show addiction - CSI: Las Vegas. Mike got into CSI:LV a little bit last year, but at the time it was an off and on thing. That changed when we picked up Season 1 while we were in Best Buy this weekend. We burned through a good chunk of the episodes on Sunday and finished the rest yesterday, and I'm very grateful there wasn't a cliffhanger in the last episode since we haven't picked up Season 2 yet.

As far as the show goes, so far, I love it. I like the storylines for the most part (I prefer the ones that don't make me tear up, for obvious reasons), the way the show is filmed is great, and I think the characters are awesome. No, not all of them; Grissom, Warrick, and Greg are my top three favorites, followed by the coroners, Nick, and Brass. Sarah and Catherine are at the bottom of my list because they drive my shit up the wall. They have their good moments, to be sure, but I'm tired of the way they both slam on Grissom for staying detached from the victims. And Sarah getting fired up on her abused women bandwagon is really getting irritating, as is Catherine's mother hen/Mother Superior routine. Also on my Tired Of list? The slow-moving secondary plot lines. What happened with the child services investigation Eddie siced on Catherine? Did Warrick gamble again on CSI time? What's the deal with Catherine and that inspector guy?

On a somewhat side note - Mike is super good at figuring out who did what. He's a little off on the specifics now and then, but he still gets the main points right. It is very rare that I can "solve" one that he hasn't already figured out.

Posted by oracle at 4:48 AM | Comments (0)

January 4, 2007

Summer of Sam

Mike and I were talking about the movie Summer of Sam yesterday and decided that we'd watch it after he got home last night. I stopped and picked it up on my way home from work, and in spite of my worries that there would not be any copies of it in stock, there were two on the shelf. I didn't have to wait in line and the traffic getting home was painless, so it was a hassle-free stop. As we had planned, the movie was ready to go when he got home, and we made it all the way through in spite of the late (for us) hour, although at the end, I was very ready to go to sleep. Until we actually turned out the lights, then I was still tired, but not sleepy at all. Hate that.

As far as the movie went, I liked it. It's not on my list of favorites, and I doubt that I'll be watching it again anytime soon, but the story was pretty good, and I felt really, really bad for Mira Sorvino's character. Watching her try to please her husband only to have him cut her short each time was just this side of heartbreaking, and I was more than a little glad when she finally realized that the problem wasn't her, it's that he was an ass. (note: I do not like John Leguizamo. His characters have been weaselly at best, but usually assholes, in the few movies I've seen, and this movie did nothing to change that trend.) Adrien Brody's character was surprisingly appealing too (he's another one I usually am not too crazy about), and I was not happy when he got the snot beat/kicked out of him towards the end of the movie.

Posted by oracle at 7:53 AM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2007

Roar: the wait is over

I finished watching the last disc of Roar last night, and I remember why I was more than a little bit in love with the show (and Heath Ledger). It's not a militantly historically accurate show by any means (I highly doubt that Diana's outfits are all period-correct Roman attire, and Mike pointed out that Heath's Irish accent was a bit lacking), but I completely look past that. The interaction between Connor and Fergus is well written and wonderfully acted, and I have yet to see anyone else with eyebrows as expressive as John Saint Ryan's. I'm sad that the show didn't have a longer run, but very, very happy that I have it on DVD so I can watch it over and over again.

Posted by oracle at 3:14 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Perry Mason and the Case of the Haunted Husband

After the first body has been found:
Mike - "It's Mrs. Greeley."
Me - "No way. It's the movie producer guy."

When Mrs. Greeley calls to give Perry the shirt he was looking for:
Mike - "Oh yeah. It's her."
Me - "Not possible. It's the movie producer."

After the second body has been found:
Mike - "It is so Mrs. Greeley."
Me - "It's definitely the movie guy."

After Perry gets a courtroom confession from Mrs. Greeley:
Mike - "Ha! I told you so!"
Me - "...damn. You were right."

Posted by oracle at 4:25 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction

Mike and I went to see this yesterday, and I really liked it. I've become a Will Ferrell fan anyways, but this was a funny feel-good movie on its own. It reminded me a lot of Bruce Almighty.

Posted by oracle at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2006

double feature

We've had American Psycho for a while, and yesterday we finally watched it. It's an interesting movie, that's for sure. I'm still trying to figure out of the end was a huge cover-up or if Patrick Bateman just imagined that he did all that stuff. I dunno. I did have to cover my eyes and ears when he killed a dog and then later a kitten, but it wasn't really scary. At several points during the movie I found myself thinking "Holy shit, he's insane," (or some variation on that theme), then I remembered that the movie was called American Psycho for a reason. Oops.

After the movie was over we had a round-robin dinner, but not the "Chic-Fil-A (or La Pizzeria) + cherry coke eaten at Wendy's" version seen frequently during high school. This version involved shrimp and key lime pie from Bonefish Grill + chicken caesar salad and sirloin marsala from Carrabba's. While we were finishing up our food, we watched the remake of The Omen. I liked it better than the original, but there are a couple of things I wish had been done differently, primarily the casting of Julia Stiles as Damien's mother. She was fine in 10 Things I Hate About You, but she was not believable at all as a twenty-or-thirty-something-year-old mother, especially since she was paired with Liev Schrieber, who did such an excellent job as Damien's father. Also, I wish the dog had been consistent throughout the movie. I was happy when we first saw the black German Shepard in the birthday party scene because that was much more fitting than the Rottweiler from the original movie and was then let down when the dog that Mrs. Baylock brought into the house was a Rottweiler. For me the German Shepard was less physically menacing and more ominously so. I really enjoyed the rest of the movie and, aside from the two things mentioned above, think it was a pretty good remake. I particularly liked how the Church did a presentation of how current events fit with the angels from the book of Revelations.

Posted by oracle at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2006

keys, knights, and nightmares

Skeleton Key was on HBO Sunday night, and that's one I've wanted to see since it first came out, even though I knew next to nothing about it. Mike flipped past it early on in the movie and humored me when I asked if he'd leave it there. That is not a movie I should watch before bedtime, let me just say that. I liked the plot, I liked the twist (it may have been obvious to you, but it was definitely a twist for me) near the end, I liked the hoodoo involvement, but sweet, weeping Moses, I spent a good chunk of the night trying to get the image of the ghosts in the mirror out of my head. I think that part got to me more than the rest of the movie, although after seeing the ending, it was neat to go back and put all the pieces/clues together. I'd like to see it again now that I know what's going on so I can watch it all unfold from that perspective, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. (When I finally did fall asleep, I had a nightmare. All I can remember from it is peeking through my eyelashes to see if it was safe, only to see someone's eye so close to mine that all I could see was the light reflecting off the black iris. Creepy.)

After watching the movie I was so freaked out I needed something to take my mind off the hoodoo so I picked up The Templar Legacy, one of the books I got from the library on Saturday. I finished it Monday afternoon and really enjoyed it. I'm pondering starting a book blog, so that's all I'll write about the story for now.

Posted by oracle at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2006

Roar

Holy shit, Roar is being released on DVD in September. I've only been waiting for this for 9 years.

Posted by oracle at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

Perry Mason

I heart this show. I read a lot of the books when I was younger, but the only Perry Mason episodes I remember watching were the made-for-tv-movies that came out in the late 80's, early 90's. We picked the first season up last week, and after watching six episodes, it's tied with Columbo on my favorite tv show list.

Posted by oracle at 8:20 PM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

countdown to Columbo

One week till the next season of Columbo is released! I am such a nerd.

Posted by oracle at 9:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 2, 2006

show releases (see also: impatient)

Columbo - Season 5: June 27
Perry Mason - Season 1: July 11
3rd Rock - Season 5: August 15

I haaaaaaaaaaate waiting.

There are several more shows that are being released that I want to buy (Lois & Clark, the rest of the Sopranos, the Pretender, One Tree Hill, etc.), but these are the ones we've already started on. The only exception is Perry Mason, and Mike's been waiting for them to start releasing that ever since we found out Columbo was coming out on DVD.

Posted by oracle at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2005

playing catch-up

This has been a busy week. A had his strings class recital, we had dinner with my brother, sister, and parents to celebrate my birthday, we had dinner with B and S (again for my birthday), and we've watched almost the entire third season of Columbo.

Posted by oracle at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

wha...

What was up with Gilmore Girls on Tuesday? I watched the TiVo'd ep last night, and I'm a little disappointed. The Lorelai/baby thing was much less of a big deal than the previews made it out to be - half of the preview time was dedicated to the preganancy scare, then on the show it got practically no buildup at all. Rory acted like a brat to Logan, which would be bad under any circumstances, but given that Logan is my current tv boyfriend, it's just inexcuseable. So his dad doesn't think she's got what it takes to be a journalist. That's not a reason to bitch at Logan. Lorelai just started talking to Emily again at last week's incredibly awkward Friday night dinner, but now they're on friendly(ish) terms again? Eating marshmallows at dinner? And I can't stand the way Lorelai handled the magazine article about her mom. She should've just told her before handing the article and letting her get blindsided like that. I hatehatehate Kirk when he's only got a minor part in an episode, so ones where he's part of one of the main plots really make me grind my teeth. Btw, what the hell is the deal with his deformed body in that ep? His nipples are, like, 3 inches apart, which leaves an unnaturally large space between each nipple and armpit. That horrible chest combined with his strange, 5-month pregnant belly was too much for my poor eyes to take. If next week's offering doesn't hold up to the potential hinted at by the previews, it's not going to be a pretty sight.

PS: Sookie informing Jackson that he was going to get snipped a mere seconds before a nurse hulked up to take him away? Is fucked up. That's the kind of thing you talk about before you get to the hospital.

Posted by oracle at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

Gilmore Girls

Lately I haven't been watching Gilmore Girls as much as I used to, so I had a couple of episodes to catch up on when I finally had time to watch them. Then only thing that was really different from the norm was that Luke and Lorelai broke up, which means nothing to you if you don't watch or care about the show, but it meant a lot to me. Watching the way things played out between them was so much deja vu that I was sitting in bed talking to Lorelai, telling her that, yes, she needed to talk to him, but if she did it before he had sorted everything out and was ready to listen, it would just be bad. But she didn't listen to me. And I watched and cried as he told her their relationship was too much for him and walked away. Then I cried even more as I watched her fall apart afterwards because I knew just how she felt, every step of the way. I don't mind connecting with a tv show, but I'd rather not connect quite that much.

Posted by oracle at 9:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 6, 2004

all must bow before the dvd altar

It all began late last year with Buffy - a harmless enough start to what now has become a dangerous addiction; first it was BtVS, Season 1, then it was Season 3. Both of those were okay because they were presents, but the holiday season had barely wrapped up when I acquired Season 2. After that, it was all downhill. I was very good about my addiction after the post-holiday binge, but all it took was the Highlander to break me. Yes, that's right. Highlander, Season 1 shattered my self-control. And like a true addict, I didn't even wait till we got home - as soon as we got in the van I tore through the flimsy plastic wrap so I could hold the box in my hands. Amazingly enough, I was able to wait a couple days before watching the first episode though. In fact, it was almost exactly a week. Don't think that sounds like much in the way of willpower? Well think again. As cheesy as it may be, I love that show. I bought Season One of the Sopranos for Mike the same day since that's become one of our shows, thus changing the status of the Best Buy trip from "a quick fix" to "binge."

My junkie side showed itself again yesterday, not even a full week later - this time at Target. We were browsing the DVD aisle when I saw Gilmore Girls, Season 1, a major find because that's the season I didn't see. Karinne tried her best throughout the entire season to convince me it was a good show, but I was steadfast in my refusal to watch it. That resolve lasted until the beginning of the second season, after which I was a convert, but I never did get to go back and watch the first episodes. Naturally, that became a necessary purchase, as did the Spider-Man tv series (from '67, not the later one), and the deluxe edition of the first Spiderman movie, and the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein special releases. I am a dvd whore.

Posted by oracle at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)