"What's that line about the beginning of some sort of friendship?"

I had decided that during the month of August, I would watch all of the movies on my queue that Netflix has labeled "Classics."  These are things that I added probably when I joined Netflix and just never got around to watching.  So since there has not been a whole of TV to watch this summer, I figured now was as good a time as any.  The first few on my list are Casablanca, The Philadelphia Story and The Sting.

I really enjoyed Casablanca.  I do not really know what I was expecting when I started to watch it, but I definitely was not expecting it to have so many funny parts.  Everyone knows the famous lines: "Here's lookin' at you, kid" and "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," but I think my favorite was when the Nazi's want the local sherriff to close Humphrey Bogart's club and he really does not have a good reason to do so:

Rick: How can you close me up?! On what grounds?!
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Croupier: (handing Renault a pile of money) Your winnings, sir
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much (yelling) Everybody out at once!

And, even though it takes place during World War II, I feel that the story is timeless and stands up to most modern romances.  However, I will say that Humphrey Bogart is not an attractive man :o)  It did not move too slowly, as some older movies tend to do, and is definitely a movie that you should see at some point in your life.  There is a reason why it is a "classic" and I do not know why I waited so long to see it!

The Philadelphia Story was also very good.  Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart all gave excellent performances, as was to be expected, but it was long and at times moved a little too slowly for my taste.  One thing that I did find especially interesting was how openly everyone talked about their personal lives with each other.  At the beginning of the movie, Hepburn's character, Tracy Lord, originally agrees to having reporters at her upcoming wedding in order to keep another story about her father's affair out of the paper.  In one scene, the family has a very open conversation about the whole situation where Mr. Lord actually says to his wife that it is not her fault that he is having an affair.  He says it has to do with, "a reluctance to grow old."  It was also weird to me that throughout the entire movie, Cary Grant refers to Hepburn as "Red," even though the movie is in black and white.  I mean, I know it was probably well-known that Hepburn had red hair, but it was still odd to me.  Overall, I would say I enjoyed the movie, but could have been a bit shorter.  Still, another movie that everyone should see.

The Sting, on the other hand, I found to be mostly overrated.  Paul Newman and Robert Redford are good-looking, charming actors, but they just were not good enough to make me like the movie.  It was way too long and I did not like how, between each section of the movie, there were headings to tell you what part of the con we were about to see.  I will say that the costumes and "aged" look of the film were definitely well-done, but by the end of the movie I was just ready for it to be over.  I am glad that I watched it, as it is still an important film and has influenced many other films, but it was just stiff and not as entertaining as I was hoping it would be.

I really should have done this years ago because, while I definitely have not loved all of these films, I really feel like I was missing out on a piece of American culture by not having seen them.  I know that sounds a little corny, but it is true.  So many things from old movies show up in popular culture, from simple references to similar styles and plots. There is a reason why these films have withstood the test of time and are still talked about today.
The next three movies on my list are Funny Girl, The Maltese Falcon and Midnight Cowboy.

xoxo
c
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"Don't ask me why I can't leave without my wife and I won't ask you why you can."

Summer movies have not really motivated me to get to the theater this year.  Most of the recent releases, especially, have not been very good and because of this, I have not really seen a whole lot.  However, I did finally get to see Toy Story 3 and Eclipse. 

Toy Story 3 was just as good as I had heard.  I did not even mind that it was in 3-D.  If you liked the first two movies, then you should definitely see this one.  I would even say that it is one of the best Pixar movies I have seen.

While it did not get great reviews, I did actually like The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.  I did not re-read the book before seeing the movie, as I had done with the previous two Twilight movies.  I was, therefore, not comparing them as much because I did not remember all the tiny details, I only really remembered the general plot.  I think this may have allowed me to enjoy the movie a little more than usual.  I do think that the acting, although still not amazing, is getting slightly better, if only because the actors now know these characters a lot better and are more comfortable in their skin.  As I said with New Moon, I just found that the dialogue and the scenes were too choppy and did not always flow well.  I am assuming it has to do with the fact that all of the screenplays have been written by the same person, so you are going to get the same interpretation of the books every time, which is unfortunate. Like I said though, I did enjoy it for what it was, just do not expect any Oscar nominations anytime soon.

Originally, despite the stellar reviews, I had planned to skip Inception.  I still have not committed to seeing it for sure, but I am at least considering it now.  Who has already seen it?  Does it really live up to all the hype?

New summer shows are also still premiering.  Mad Men starts this Sunday (ah woo hoo!) and Dark Blue starts in a few weeks.

The first two episodes of Rizzoli & Isles were good.  Some parts of it did freak me out a little though, meaning it will definitely get DVR'd and watched the next day so that I do not have nightmares.  And I am being completely serious :o)  I also really enjoyed Covert Affairs.  Especially after seeing Eion Bailey in the first episode (think hyenas on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jim in Center Stage), so I really hope he shows up in a lot more episodes.  White Collar, The Glades and Rookie Blue have also continued to be excellent and highly entertaining summer fare.

Continuing with my current Timothy Olyphant obsession, I have now watched High Life and The Crazies. 

The Crazies was watched OnDemand and was surprisingly good.  And, aside from a few scenes that made me jump, it was not really that scary.  From the commercials, I thought it was about zombies or something along those lines, but it was actually about people being infected by something in the town water supply and going crazy.  The actual reason for the crazy people is much more interesting than your typical scary-monster-movie.  High Life, on the other hand, was not what I would call a good movie :o)  However, it was not horrible either.  Four junkies plan what they think is the perfect bank heist, but of course, it goes horribly wrong.  Not Olyphant's best work, but it was entertaining enough for the hour and twenty minutes that it lasted.

Other than High Life and my continued viewing of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, other movies from Netflix recently were The Invention of Lying and Wonder Woman.

I got the most recent Wonder Woman cartoon because it was voiced by Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, Virginia Madsen and Oliver Platt.  It was not anything super fantastic, but it was Wonder Woman so there is not a whole lot to it and was therefore pretty entertaining.  Although, I have to say, Nathan Fillion's cartoon couterpart did not do him justice :o)

I had wanted to see The Invention of Lying when it was in theaters because I love Ricky Gervais, but I am glad that I did not because it was kind of weird.  Parts of it were hilarious because, well, it is Ricky Gervais and he is mostly hilarious.  However, it was surprisingly quite boring.  Also, it went from being a movie about the guy who invents lying (like the title suggests) and discovers just how much he can use it to his own benefit, to something with a more religious aspect and then sort of gradually turns into a film about not being with people because of what they look like and how much money they make, but because of who they are.  And while, these are all very interesting themes, they didn't really mesh well together.  I would say you should probably avoid this movie, if you know what is good for you :o)

In other news, Comic Con started Thursday in San Diego.  Seeing as I am still mostly unemployed, this probably would have been the year to attend and cross it off my bucket list.  Unfortunately, I was not really paying attention to when it was and realized too late that I should have made plans to go, so I have mostly been trying to keep track of things online.  I will continue to post updates on Facebook and Twitter, if you are interested.

I hope everyone is staying out of the heat!  Instead you should stay inside and watch lots of fun movies and TV shows! :o)

xoxo

c

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"Serve, protect and don't screw up."

A lot of networks have started introducing new shows in the summer, which I appreciate, however summer TV can sometimes be tricky. For starters, not everything premieres around the same time.  A few shows started right after the regular season shows were over and some do not start until August. Also, many summer TV shows are just really bad.

I tried really hard to like The Good Guys with Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. I enjoyed that Whitford's character was so totally different from Josh Lyman and Danny Tripp. However, after a few episodes, it just got repetitive, so I have stopped watching. Although, I do still really like his mustache :o) I also tried to watch The Gates and Memphis Beat, but I just could not get into either of them. They were just plain boring. Seeing as I usually enjoy vampire related things, I was hoping The Gates would be good, but it felt very mundane. Almost like Desperate Housewives except with vampires, werewolves and witches.  With Memphis Beat, I do not know what it was, the writing just seemed slightly awkward at times, like they could not decide if it was supposed to be funny or serious.

I am, however, really enjoying Rookie Blue. I like Missy Peregrym (mostly because of Stick It :o) and Life As We Know It and Reaper were canceled prematurely, so I really hope this show sticks around for a while. I like it because it is not trying to put a new spin on the cop-show genre, it is just looking at it from the view of a rookie. I would say it is more like Grey's Anatomy, but with cops...and a lot less sex...so far anyway. 

The Glades premiered last night on A&E and it was excellent. White Collar and Covert Affairs premiere tomorrow night on USA, which I am super excited about. Also, Mad Men starts on AMC in two weeks and the last season finale was the best episode of the series yet, so I cannot wait to see what happens next.

While my TV schedule has been relatively light, I have been trying to cut down my Netflix queue a little.

My watching of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia hit a slight snag as the first disc that I got was scratched. However, I received replacement discs and am now through the second season. (Considering there are only seventeen episodes in the first two seasons combined, this is not a huge accomplishment.) Aside from being overly excited by the opening credits and the occasional mention of places in Philly that I know, my initial reaction was that the show is pretty funny. I would not say that I laugh hysterically at every episode, but it is more of a subtle humor, if that makes any sense. With every episode though, it grows on you more and more.  I have three more season to get through, so I will keep you updated.

In terms of movies, I watched Silkwood, Dreamgirls and 300.

Silkwood starred Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, David Strathairn, Craig T. Nelson and Fred Ward. And even with a mullet, Meryl Streep's performance is excellent. She plays Karen Silkwood, a woman who, while working at an Oklahoma nuclear power plant, becomes exposed to massive amounts of radiation. She starts to investigate what is going on at the plant in regards to worker safety but dies in a mysterious car accident before she finishes. It is based on a true story and is definitely worth seeing.

Dreamgirls, the play, was playing in Philadelphia and even though I had not seen the movie, a friend offered me tickets so I went. The individual performances were good, but I was not very impressed by the overall production.  The movie had gotten nominated for so many Oscars, that I thought maybe it was just the play that I did not like, so I decided to give the movie a try.  It was just as bad as the play.  Jennifer Hudson's performance was impressive and definitely worthy of her Oscar, but the rest of the movie was just not great.  The only thing that I really enjoyed was the brief cameo by Jaleel White at the very beginning :o)
As much as I enjoy hots boys with 8-pack abs, wearing leather speedos, I have to say, 300 was pretty bad. It had basically no plot, as well as a totally unnecessary sex scene and pretty poor dialogue. And sadly, as my one friend pointed out, this really is the only one of Gerard Butler's movies worth seeing. I have no idea why there is so much hype around this movie. I mean, it was visually pretty cool, but the rest of it was just not good. It must be a boy thing.

On a completely seperate note, Emmy nominations came out last week and I am very upset that Timothy Olyphant was not nominate for Justified. Even Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly agrees with me!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a FABulous Fourth of July! If you are missing me too much in between posts, remember that you can always follow me on twitter and facebook!

xoxo
c

As always, here is my regular plea for all of you to donate to these amazing causes:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Habitat for Humanity
United Way
AmeriCares
StillerStrong
The Nature Conservancy
National Wildlife Federation
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"Hang on, everybody - I wanna try something I saw in a cartoon once!"

Since all of my regular season shows have finished and the new summer seasons are just now getting started, I have not been watching a whole lot lately. Also, because of this ridiculously hot weather, I have been spending a significant amount of time by my aunt's pool READING! Shocking, I know, but it does happen from time to time :o)  I have also been watching lots of the World Cup.

I did finally get around to watching An Education the other night when my mother ordered it OnDemand. It was a good film, well acted, etc. I just was not very excited by it. Carey Mulligan's performance was definitely excellent. However, I am not sure that it was more deserving of an Oscar nomination than Emily Blunt's role as Queen Victoria. I do love Emily Blunt though, so I am little biased.  I was, however, excited to see Olivia Williams from Dollhouse as the teacher. I would not say that everyone HAS to see this film, but it was well-done, so if it looks like something you would enjoy, then you will probably like it. I know, that was not super helpful, but it is pretty much all I can say.

The A-Team, on the other hand, was SO MUCH FUN! I did not go into this movie expecting much more than a typical action film. The special effects did leave something to be desired and, while the scene was hilarious, the idea of "flying" a tank is not exactly what I would call realistic. However, if you were a fan of the TV show then I think you will definitely enjoy it. I used to love watching this show with my brother when we were younger and I was happy to see that my favorite characters were as entertaining as I remembered them being. And if you do go see the movie, make sure you stay until the credits finish! Definitely a fun summer flick!

It also made me happy to see Bradley Cooper wearing Phillies shirts in two different scenes. It obviously does not take a whole lot to make me happy, especially when it involves Bradley Cooper. To be fair though, I loved him before most people and while I did try to track him down while he was filming The Dark Fields though in Philly last month, I was unsuccessful. C'est la vie!

Season three of Deadwood was just as awesome as expected. My only complaint would be that, because it was canceled, the finale left some unanswered questions. I have no idea if it was canceled after the season was finished filming, so it is possible they thought they were coming back for another season. Regardless, it was an excellent series overall and I highly recommend everyone watching it at some point. Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane are obvious stars, but it is really the supporting characters that really make this show shine. Just be prepared for lots of people's throats getting cut :o)

I am now planning to catch up on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I have heard that this is a hilarious show and after learning that Chase Utley and Ryan Howard will be in an episode of the upcoming season, I decided it was time I started watching. In fact, one of my friends has threatened to cut me off unless I watch the show, so I guess I better get started :o)

I never did see Sex and the City 2, mostly because it got horrible reviews, but also because I just never found the time.  I do, however, still really want to see Toy Story 3, so that is on my to-do list for next week.  I have also added Despicable Me to my list of movies that I might see depending on reviews, because the previews look really funny.

xoxo

c

So many places still need our help after all the devastating natural and unnatural disasters that have happened, please consider donating SOMEWHERE. Here are my suggestions:

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Habitat for Humanity

United Way

AmeriCares

StillerStrong

The Nature Conservancy
National Wildlife Federation
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"If you don’t have faith that the world will turn in your direction then it just simply never will."

After letting it sit on top of my Blu-ray player for five months, I have FINALLY watched Rachel Getting Married. (You are all very proud of me, I know, you do not have to say it :o) Anne Hathaway plays a recovering addict who is getting out of rehab just in time for her older sister's wedding. As I had been warned, there were a couple scenes where you feel the awkwardness of the situation, which always makes me physical uncomfortable, but overall it was an excellent film. I especially liked that the music was not like a normal soundtrack, that the musicians were actually playing live while the scenes were being filmed. It made it much more natural that the wedding musicians, who were also friends of the family, were either rehearsing on the porch or just messing around in the other room while the family was interacting elsewhere in the house. The performances were fantastic and because of the realness of the characters and the way it was filmed, you really felt like part of this family. Anne Hathaway's performance is amazing and should not be missed!

On the complete opposite end of the movie-spectrum, I also recently watched Dear John. It was pretty much exactly what you would expect from a Nicholas Sparks book made into a movie (ie. A Walk to Remember and The Notebook). It was not horrible but it was not that great either. It also had this autism sub-plot that was not really developed all that well and just made the story more convoluted than it needed to be. Channing Tatum's and Amanda Seyfried's performances were fine, I just wish they would choose better movies to make. They are both good actors, they just happen to make some crappy movies.

I have completed Deadwood season two and it continues to be amazing. I am a taking a little break before starting season three two watch a few movies, but will get back into it very soon.

From Netflix, I have gotten Quantum of Solace and Silkwood.

The only James Bond movies that I have seen are the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig versions. I have never really found them to be anything extraordinary. I watch them because they are fun and there are crazy action and fight sequences. But I have never found the plots to be all that interesting or believable. After watching Quantum of Solace, that tradition lives on. Maybe the earlier Bond movies have more to them, but I am going to guess that they probably do not. I did enjoy Quantum of Solace, as it was pretty much exactly what I had expected it to be. It was also very cool to see Siena, Italy at the beginning of the movie after having been there ten years ago with my Ya-yas :o)

I never got the chance to see MacGruber :o( It did not get very good reviews and did not do well in theaters, so it is already out of theaters near me. I just never had the time to get to see it so I will, unfortunately, have to wait until it is out on DVD. (Sorry JGE!!!)


On a completely non-entertainment related note, there are a lot of things going on in the world right now. The people of New Orleans, Haiti, Chile are still recovering from natural disasters. The Gulf Coast is also dealing with the on-going issue of the oil spill. There have been earthquakes, tornadoes and flooding all over the world, as well as in our own backyards. If you are feeling as completely hopeless and useless as I am and want to know where you can send money and aid, here are a few of my suggestions:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Habitat for Humanity
United Way
AmeriCares


I will be celebrating my 27th birthday this Sunday, so in honor of...myself...I leave you with this funny clip :o)



xoxo
c

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