Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to all. And "Thank You" to all the veterans out there (especially Thumper's Spouse Thingy).

This weekend was actually a busy few days for the Pocket Ferengei and I. We both got out a little bit earlier, so the traffic was not as bad as it normally was...so there was no need to use my "traffic kitty" picture for my Facebook page.



[Every day that there happens to be traffic...FOR NO REASON...I put this picture up with a note that .."Traffic Kitty is at it again".] Our route to and from work is infamous for this. On a beautiful day, we'd sit in traffic for no reason whatsoever (Sometimes, not often, yes there is a reason; but a majority of the time it's for no reason). So, up goes the kitty.

So, Friday night was a nice quiet night at home and we got to watch a movie. This time it was "It's Complicated".

It's Complicated



It wasn't a terrible movie. But by no means is it "Memorably Hilarious!". Merryl Streep and Alex Baldwin are funny in it. Steve Martin plays the 'straight man' to both of them (which is funny, because I LOVE Steve Martin -- especially when he's being funny...but when he tries the serious (which I am not saying he did in this movie), but when he's the supporting actor, he does very well). Now if you want to see him in a really great dramatic role watch "A Simple Twist Of Fate".



One day I'll start doing Top Ten lists (if I can pare them down to 10) of my favorite actors/actresses movies..starting with Steve, (so I can get back to that movie).

Back to "It's Complicated"... it was alright. It was funny at some parts, but as an overall, laugh out loud "Memorably Hilarious" movie...nah, not so much.

It's worth a look.

What was a whole lot better than "It's Complicated was "Old Dogs".

Old Dogs



Now this stars another couple of favorite actors of mine: Robin Williams and John Travolta (and Seth Green). Robin Williams and John Travolta star as two friends who own a sports equipment company trying to make a deal with a Japanese company to get the company to sell their equipment in Japan and they sell the Japanese equipment here. (At least that's what I think that story was about). The main story was about men growing older, and finding out what's missing in their lives. Robin finds out that he has twins (7 years after the fact) when their mother (Kelly Preston [Mrs. Travolta]) tells him about them because she's going to jail for 2 weeks for criminal trespass. (Travolta and Prestons daughter plays the girl twin, so this was a "family" film in more meaning than one.)

It was a good movie, definitely worth a watch.

Saturday, we had dinner (a cook-out) with our friends Butch and Sundance. A wonderful time was had by all. Good food and great conversation. We got to eat outside on our patio (steaks, corn, yummy)...and we lasted a long time outside; until I got attacked by a kamikaze bug (it smashed right into my forehead). That was enough outside for me. We got to watch the end of the NHL championship with them.

All-in-all it was a great day.

Sunday, the PF and I went to the movies with Bubba and Shark-Boy. We went to see "Prince of Persia" (WOW, I just shocked myself...I went to check and see how it came out in the top 10 list of movies this weekend and it came in 3rd ($30 million) [Sex and the City 2 [I will never see that movie, didn't see the first one, and have no desire to see it] came in 2nd with $32 million; and Shrek the Fourth came in #1 again this week ($43 million this week)...completely shocking.]

Prince Of Persia



This movie was not a bad movie at all. I didn't have any bad or good thoughts about it before going in; it looked like a fun, waste your time kind of movie...which it is, but it's so much more.

Jake Gyllenhall plays a street urchin who becomes an adopted son of his towns king (the character showed bravery in front of the king and he took pitty on the boy...well, maybe pitty's not the word). The king was impressed with how brave he was, so he took him in and raised him as one of his own sons (which he has 2, that we knew of (this being Persia and kings with multiple wives and such).

Now the sub-title for the movie is "The Sands Of Time"; so, yes, this movie deals with time travel. I am not a huge fan of time travel movies; mainly because the writer(s) get it completely wrong. Case-in-point: I still say that at the end of "Terminator 2" the boy should have disappeared when Arnold's terminator got lowered into the vat of molten ore (or whatever they stuck him in). Why? Because they got all the parts and that was supposed to have stopped the war (or time loop, or whatever they were trying to say). I'm just saying. It's the way Cameron set the movie up...but the boy still was alive....agh, nevermind (my head's gonna explode). That's the first 'strike' for Prince of Persia.

The second 'strike' this movie has is because it's based on a video game. My nephew (Shark-boy) loved the games (he even said after the movie, it made him want to play the video games again). Strike 2.

The pluses outweigh the strikes. The story was good (not great, but good); Jake Gylenhall is turning into a good looking action hero, and he's a good actor; the stunt work was fun to watch; Sir Ben Kingsley was great as always; the special effects were pretty decent; the time travel aspect was believable (and it made sense); and they also had Alfred Molina in it in a funny part. [Plus, since Disney is producing it, I kept having "Prince Ali, fabulous he, Ali Ababwa..." going through my mind during the beginning of the movie when the "street urchin" was running away from the guards. (It was exactly like watching that 'Aladin' beginning scene come to life, which wasn't a bad thing; really.)]

This movie is definitely worth a look at in the theatres. It's a keeper (I'll be buying it when it comes out.)

Sunday night the PF and I had another small cook-out, this time with our friends Mr. Anderson and his wife and new baby girl (Emily). They are a very nice couple that we hang-out with every now and then (usually we have a cook-out at the beginning and end of summer with them); and now they just have Emily (and also Pippin their old puppy dog -- 11yrs old). Emily's a cute baby (only 5 weeks old). Most of my family and friends know that I'm not a "baby" person (never have been, never will); but she is a cute baby.

So, Sunday was another very good day.

Today, I'm currently watching Palladia tv station (we have Comcast, it's one of their music/concert channels and today they are showing some pretty good concerts). We just finished watching Genesis (which was pretty decent [especially when we have the closed captioning on (now I can see what they are singing)]. Now I'm watching (well listening to) "Journey: Live In Manilla" (without Steve Perry). The guy they got to replace him was drowned out on the first song (which I can't remember what it was, isn't that sad...it was just on). Then they played "Only The Young Can Say" and he got a little bit better; and he sort of sounds like Steve Perry (a lighter sounding Steve Perry, not the crisp/fantastic original). He's doing a decent job..I miss Steve Perry though. I wish he'd get off his "high horse" and come back to the band and make more music. Oh well.

Well, Happy Memorial Day to everybody...hope your cookouts turn out fantastic. (We'll be having one with Bubba tonight when she comes over after her work shift).

More later, Booboo

A Few Movies That Are Worthwhile To See

I have still been watching a bunch of movies. Most of which are not even worth mentioning; a few which are worth a look (only if you have absolutely nothing else to do); and a few that were really surprising. My movie watching tend to be movies that sound interesting to me (damn the reviewers); so most people have never heard of a few of these movies. So, here are my reviews of the five that I thought were worth a mention:



Crazy On The Outside -- This is a movie that (I believe) never made it to the theatres. I think it was only released at the Cannes Movie festival in 2009 (a quick check of IMDB showed that there was a release in 2010 in January, but it didn't make it to a theatre near us on the East coast). The movie stars Tim Allen as a guy getting out of prison (a 3 year term) which he took instead of ratting out his friend (Ray Liotta). His sister (Sigourney Weaver) picks him up from jail and has him stay with her family (J.K. Simmons plays her husband). And he finds out that his girlfriend (who his sister told him had died) is still alive (played by Julie Bowen - Claire from "Modern Family"). The Pocket Ferengei loved this movie, he thought it was a funny movie. I thought it was a decent movie (I first thought that this was a 'semi-autobiographical' movie about Time Allen, but it's not.) Worth a look.




The Fourth Kind -- This movie stars Mila Jovovich, and she plays a psychiatrist named Abbey Tyler who lived in Nome, Alaska, and how she gets suckered in to researching "close encounters of the fourth kind". At the beginning of the movie Jovovich talks to the camera as herself and states that the footage in this film is from archived footage, tape recorded sessions and notes from actual therapy sessions. When I saw the trailer (on a previous video--don't know which one), it looked interesting. The film got "outed" as using "hoaxed" film (and according to IMDB (again) "...promotional materials from Universal, the film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome. However Alaska state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can't find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska. Ron Adler, CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and Denise Dillard, president of the Alaska Psychological Association say they've never heard of Abigail Tyler. Web sites for an "Alaska Psychiatry Journal" and "Alaska News Archive" containing references to Tyler were created by the film's producers, but were outed as hoaxes when it was discovered they were registered a month before the film's release and the purported author of one of the archived news articles stated she had never written it".

The movie co-stars Elias Koteas (who looks a lot like Christopher Meloni from Law & Order - SVU, but it's not him; Elias played the skinhead from "Some Kind Of Wonderful" (another decent movie).)

It's an OK movie, probably something to watch when there's absolutely nothing else to do.



All About Steve -- This was the third Sandra Bullock movie from 2009 and if you believed all the reviews it's the worst movie of the year. There have been way worse movies in 2009 (some of which were nominated for (and lost) Academy Awards (In the Loop, Up In The Air)). Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses, and I really feel sorry for her with all the bad luck she got when she won for Best Actress (look up curse of Academy Award Best Actress winners). Sandra plays a woman who is not normal (they did not come straight out and say she had a psychological illness, but she kind of reminded me of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory). She writes crossword puzzles for the local newspaper, and her parents set her up on a blind date with Bradley Cooper. Of course things go bad, and Sandra gets suckered in to following after Bradley by Thomas Hayden Church (who plays a news reporter--a man on the scene reporter-- and his cameraman is Bradley Cooper). A secondary interest for Sandra is an actor DJ Qualls (who is an up and coming "Steve Buscemi" type actor, not really a looker, but his acting is really good). I think this movie deserved better than what the critics gave it. It's not one that I would go to the theatre to see, but its a good movie to watch on Encore.



Shrek The Fourth (Or Shrek Forever After; Or Shrek The Final Chapter) -- I am a huge fan of the Shrek movies (even #3). This movie has gotten a lot of bad reviews, but I liked it. The story was good, the animation (as always) is fantastic, some of the dialogue was unbelievably funny (Donkey calling gingy "cracker" got me and the guy next to us (who almost spit out his drink when it came wizzing by) cracking up). This is definitely a keeper for me (I'll be buying it to go with the Shrek collection I have -- I'll also be spending some time this week going to Wallmart (and searching on-line) for new toys if they have them).



Defendor -- This was a really good movie. IMDB got it completely wrong by calling it "A comedy" (rest of the bio: "a comedy centered around three characters: an everyday guy who comes to believe he's a superhero, his psychiatrist, and the teenager he befriends"). This is not a comedy. It has some comedy elements to it (not many, but some). I might label it a dramedy (at the least), but definitely not a comedy. It stars Woody Harrelson as "Defendor" (who for all intents and purposes is playing Woody from Cheers (or in all actuality just himself), but as a straightman (no comedy). He's a mentally retarded person who dresses up as a superhero (Batman/Punisher type -- utility belt, with some really clever, non-lethal devices (unless they fall and break their necks from the marbles or are allergic to wasp stings)). This movie also stars Elias Koteas (as a bad guy, which he plays very well); Sandra Oh as the psychiatrist, and Kat Dennings as the girlfriend (she's turning out to be a decent actress because she made me so angry during this movie). This movie is definitely worth a look...and if you have ever seen the trailer for this movie (which is cut to make it look like a comedy, so maybe that's why IMDB got it wrong) you will be completely surprised--because its a different movie.

This movie got us talking about Woody's character afterwards (Bubba and Sharkboy were over tonight and this was the movie we picked), and the PF said it correctly "he should be Rorshack's partner". Woody's character did not see any "shades of gray" at all, everything was "black or white (good or bad)" there was absolutely no in between. I think Woody should have been nominated for this movie (instead of The Messenger -- which I will be watching later today).

That's all for now...more later. Booboo

Happy Caturday/Best Wishes On Your New Life Together

Happy Caturday to all.

And a special "congratulations" to Wesley and Buttercup.

(Of course I had to find THE picture)

Today is your wedding day. We (the Pocket Ferengei and I) couldn't be happier for you two if you had won the lottery. Which you did...the day you found each other. Today was just a continuation of the winnings from that lucky day.

We wish you the best in your future endeavors together; and happiness (not all the happiness in the world, because other people need some happiness too)--but enough happiness to get you wherever your future path takes you both.

Laugh Often/Love Always!

Booboo and The Pocket Ferengei (and the ever growing Florence Fuzzies)

Just Another Manic Monday

No, not really. It was actually a pretty slow, uncrazed day (which is odd, since da boss man has been away for a couple of days...I thought he'd be coming back with a vengeance. I guessed wrong.)

So, now I'm just waiting for dinner to get done "Patti's Chicken Surprise" (the surprise is that I got dinner in the oven before 9:00 pm). All I did was: got the 3 breast chicken pack, washed up, heated up some extra virgin olive oil, and cooked them on the stove for 10 minutes (complete, both sides); I sprinkled on some Weber's sweet and sour spice; then I sprayed a ceramic dish with some Crisco butter spray, opened up a can of Progresso chicken and corn chowder soup and poured some onto the dish; put the cooked chicken on top of that and then poured the rest of the soup on top. Put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (along with Betty Crocker Scalloped potatoes). Opened up a can of Acme's jellied cranberry sauce....and now we wait until the timer goes 'ding'.

The Pocket Ferengei got energetic tonight when we got home (no, not that way--you sickies). As soon as he got home he went outside and put his carrot seeds in his garden (he put the tomato plants in yesterday). Then he came inside and took care of cleaning out Mr. Pig's cage (after we cut Mr. Pig's nails), and then he vaccumed the house. It's now 9:39 pm and he's talking to his imaginary friends. Whoo hoo.

Well, there goes the timer. Off to feed the PF. Have a good night.

More later, Booboo

Happy Caturday!!!

I found a Moody Blues one:



Hope everyone has a happy Caturday!

Anybody Else Tired?

I don't know why, but I'm just overly tired lately. (Maybe I'm catching something...I hope not.)

Booboo

Nothing New Here.

Except to say that the Pocket Ferengei went by himself to his mother's for mother's day yesterday (she wasn't up for me to visit I suppose). Fine by me, I'm not a real big fan of her's.

So I got to be a bum and hang around the house by myself. [Well, myself and the gang of fur.]

A nice day was had by all.

More later, Booboo

Happy Mother's Day, To All You Mother's Out There!

We shall be off to the Pocket Ferengei's mother today, so Happy Mother's Day to all you Momma's:

A Fun Day Was Had By All

Today was a very good day.

The Pocket Ferengei and I started the day off by picking up Shark-Boy and meeting Butch and Sundance at the movie theatre to watch "Iron Man 2". And ended the day with a good dinner at our house with Butch and Sundance. The dinner started off the summer grilling season for us. (Just hot dogs and beer brats, but it was a good meal with great friends.)

Iron Man 2: There was not a disappointed person among us.

If you don't know the story of the first movie, Tony Stark builds a suit of armor as a means to escape imprisonment in a middle eastern country. Once home, he realizes that the weapons his company (Stark Industries) makes are being sold to anyone (not just the U.S., who he thinks he is selling to...at least that's what I thought they were trying to portray in the first movie). He continues to make improvements to his armor, someone else gets ahold of his first armor and makes a bigger version of it, they have a fight, Tony wins, he comes out as Iron Man...ta da. [Bonus: If you watched all the way through the credits you found out about Nick Fury and the Avenger Initiative.]

In Iron Man 2 (since he's come out as Iron Man and he doesn't have to worry about secret identities and such), Tony continues being Iron Man (milking it for all it's worth). I loved how the writer's touched on a story-line that was in the comics called "Demon In A Bottle" [(at least I think that's what it was called)--Tony became a raging alcoholic in it], but made it slightly different for the movie. Robert Downey, Jr. is still a fantastic choice to play Tony Stark.

Mickey Rourke (another good actor) is the bad guy "Whiplash" [which is an amalgamated character, as there have been numerous Whiplash's in the Iron Man comic]. He's a russian wanting revenge on the Stark family. (I don't know if it's the facial reconstruction that Mickey's had (because he had given up acting to be a boxer, which didn't work out too well for his looks--and according to him that's fine because he couldn't stand being an actor known for just being a pretty boy). But there's just something about watching him act...which is a good thing. (Mickey as Marv from Sin City is still my favorite character of his.)

Don Cheadle as Rhodey Rhodes was great (yet another good actor). He stepped into the role after Terrence Howard got outsted from it. RDJ and Don Cheadle acted like their friendship was forever (which was another good thing)...it didn't feel forced.

Gwyneth Paltrow was good as Pepper Potts (I loved how they changed the kiss from the trailer, loved it).

I was completely surprised with Scarlett Johanson as the Black Widow. When I had heard that she was picked to play the part, I just couldn't imagine it. But now having seen the movie, yes it definitely was a good choice. (And she's the PF's favorite actress right now.)

Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer...when he plays a scumbag, he truly plays a really good scumbag ("The Green Mile", he was a freak in that one). This role was good for Sam.

Even Garry Shandling as Senator Stern (obnoxious person that he is) was really good.

All-in-all, the movie is worth a look in the movie theatres. (It's a keeper.)

Oh, and definitely stay through the credits..

More later, Booboo [Oh yeah...

*************
SPOILER BELOW
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I completely geeked-out at the end when they showed "Mjöllnir" (Thor's hammer) in a crater in the New Mexico desert. I LOVE mythology, and it's not very often that you see a movie about Norse mythology. So I had some explaining to do about why I was squealing like a little girl (yes, I know I'm a woman and I'm allowed to); but about a hammer in the dessert (yeah, some explaining was needed). The people that stayed behind to watch the true end (who weren't my friends) appreciated being caught up about it also. (Kenneth Branagh directing Thor--now if only he does what John Favreu does and appears in a minor role (possibly one of the warrior three?), I shall be a truly ecstatic fan girl.)

Happy Caturday!

Happy Caturday Everybody!

Movie Trailers

For them most part, I love watching movie trailers. Most of the time, the trailer is the best part of the (a) movie you are watching; and/or (b) the movie the trailer is about.

This summer is looking-up to be a major bummer for movies for me. The movies I really want to see are all coming out this month (before the summer truly begins) beginning this week with Iron Man 2. Next up will be Shrek the Fourth, and I know something else is coming out this month, but I can't be bothered to look it up. That's how excited I am about the movies.

I just watched a trailer for "Jonah Hex". This movie is loosely based on DC comics western bounty hunter. It's a really good series (the series that I've been reading has been going on for about 2 years now; and the writing, characterization and artwork has been really good). In this current series, they've written Jonah Hex as a bounty hunter who was ditched by his dad (when he was a kid) to an indian tribe. Jonah was raised by said indian tribe. During some ritual or another he wound up getting his face badly scarred. He's just an incredibly good bounty hunter. He also fought in the civil war (on the loosing side -- confederate). That's all. I have found out that he is based on a real bounty hunter (which I thought was cool).

WELL...DC fuqued up big time. Forget everything I just wrote. From the trailer, it looks like he: (a) is a bounty hunter; (b) has the scar; (c) has the confederate uniform; and (d) he shoots guns. What DC (or whoever wrote this pile o crap movie) did was gave him guns and stuff that were laying around from the movie version of the "Wild Wild West" and gave him the supernatural power to talk to the dead. Now I loved "Pushing Daisies" and I love "Medium" ... but come on????

This is a character that I like...and they screwed him up.

They got Josh Brolin to play him (fine, I like Josh Brolin).

They got John Malkovich to play the bad guy (great, I love John Malkovich).

They got whatever her name is Fox to play the girl (I really, really, really, REALLY, do not like her...she's the twit that was in "Jennifer's Body" and played the girlfriend in both "Transformers" movie....Megan Fox, that's it. (I DESPISE HER.))

Will I still see the movie? Dumbass that I am will still see this movie (only on a reduced rate showing...AMC A.M.).

I just would have loved to have seen this movie done like a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, or even like "Tombstone" or "The Quick & the Dead"...but instead we get a PG-13 POS.

Screw it...[wanders off muttering "why did you watch the trailer" and "why her, why her, why her"....]

More later, Booboo

Another Monday....

...Another work week...forgot something over the weekend:




Rabbitt, Rabbitt!

And a big old "Happy Birthday" to John Conlon.



Ah well...nothing new with me. Later on, when I get them off of the camera, I'll have some more pictures up of the 'noobs', and of the integration process.

More later, Booboo