Top 10 - Steve Martin

Steve Martin is one of my favorite "slash" personalities. "Slash" meaning: Actor/Writer/Producer/Singer, etc.

Ever since I first saw him in the 1970's in his white tuxedo with the "groucho" glasses and the arrow through the head (seeing him on TV that is...I was too young to see him in concert); I've loved his comedy. I'm glad that Muzzy and Dad-o liked his humor too, because they let me listen to him.

In the late 1970's he turned his career into acting, then in the 1980's he started directing, writing, producing, and so on.

To this day he is still one of my favorites.

Nowadays he's getting into remakes and family films...which is not all bad. Most of the family films are OK (not that I'd watch them more than once). And most of the remakes are one's that did not need to be re-done (the "Pink Panther" remakes come to mind. Even with his weird/funny accents: Steve is not Peter Sellers. There's no way they needed to remake those movies.)

When he was doing stand-up, he was very "cerebral"; he made you think about some of the things he was saying. Some of the jokes were ahead of their time; some of them were straight from the past; but alot of the time he did observational comedy.

Recently (in 2009) he came out with an album "The Crow: New Songs For The 5-String Banjo". It's a bluegrass/country album; and it's him on his banjo and he has some friends accompany him on it. He had Vince Gill and Dolly Parton singing a song called "Pretty Flowers" (which was a nice ballad); Steve sang a song called "Late For School" which was very funny; mainly the album was all music. And it won the 2010 Grammy Award for Bluegrass (congratulations on that, I had to check on that one, because I didn't remember seeing it mentioned anywhere). In the past he has done comedy albums with banjo accompaniment, but this was the first all music album he created. And it is worth a listen to.

He's also a very good writer, so alot of my favorite movies are the one's he's had a hand in writing.

A few days ago I mentioned starting my "Top Ten" lists. So Steve Martin will be my first one. So here we go, in order 1-10 [with some honorable mentions at the end]:

1

Roxanne (1987)

This movie is one of my favorite romantic comedy movies. I love watching this over and over again. It never gets dull. Steve Martin has a "screenplay" credit in this movie, along with acting. He plays C.D. "Charlie" Bales, the captain of the firemen in a small moutain town. Rick Rossovich (where is he nowadays?) plays "Chris" a fireman hired to train the firemen. Darryl Hannah (ditto?) plays Roxanne.

This movie is based on the play "Cyrano de Bergerac", the doomed/disfigured captain of an army unit who falls in love with Roxanne. He gets her to fall in love with his words (that he gives to his brother-in-arms so that that guy can woo and win Roxanne).

The writing is sharp, and the way that Steve plays C.D. is just wonderful. The cast they have in this movie are funny in their own right (Shelley Duvall, Fred Willard, Michael D. Pollard, and Damon Wayans).

I'd have to say that the best scene in the movie is when C.D. gets 'revenge' at a someone who makes fun of his nose: they guy gets rude with him in the bar and calls him 'big nose' (which he does have, that's the character); so C.D. tells the guy to shoot a dart at a dartboard and whatever number the guy hits, C.D. will come up with that amount of insults. The guy hits the #20, twice -- he was a dartboard champ; and C.D. supposedly comes up with 20 insults, but if you count them he actually comes up with 25 funny insults.

Of course love wins, and he gets the girl at the end of the movie. Steve played such a fun romantic guy in this movie.

2

Bowfinger (1999)

I tend to read-up on movies before they come out (more so now because the internet makes it oh so easy to do so), but this movie came out before I hand internet access (yeah, I was one of the last straglers to get a computer). I had to use magazines (Premiere was my favorite--too bad that they had to cancel subscription service on that magazine, but you can find it on the net); and this movie caught my attention because of the premise: A down on his luck movie producer gets the idea to "stalk" a movie star to make his next movie (so that he can save his studio)--he doesn't tell his actors or crew that he really hasn't gotten the okay by the actor he approached to do the film, so they think he's doing "method" acting, Meanwhile the actor thinks he's going nuts when these strange people come up to him and say and do weird things to him. The premise just sounded too funny. Steve is listed with a "written by" credit along with starring as "Robert K. Bowfinger".

The cast is fantastic and oh so funny: Eddie Murphy plays two roles (Kit/Jefferson Ramsey--one of which is the actor Bowfinger approaches to star in his movie "Chubby Rain", but he says no); Robert Downey, Jr. has a minor role (as another actor who Bowfinger approached to star in his movie); Heather Graham and Christine Baranski (as actresses from Bowfingers studio); Terrence Stamp as a head guru of a "Scientology" type religion group that Jefferson Ramsey belongs to; and oh so more.

The execution of this movie was perfect (and oh so hilarious). Most definitely worth a look. [Funny sidenote: This was one of his last movies like this. He started making "family" movies after this (with one or two exceptions).]

3

A Simple Twist Of Fate (1994)

This movie was written by Steve Martin. It's a re-telling of a story called "Silas Marner" which, sorry to say, I have never read. Synopsis: Steve plays Michael McCann a man who was a school teacher at one time whose wife cheats on him. He gets disillusioned with mankind after that, he stops being a teacher and moves to another town where he becomes the towns miser. He makes furniture and other things, and spends his money on gold coins. He winds up getting robbed of his coins, which pushes him further from mankind. One day he adopts a little girl whose mother died outside his house. After several years, the real father returns to claim the girl from Michael, thinking that she will be an advantage for his political career. (Michael McCann wins in the end.)

This movie has another great cast of costars: Gabriel Byrne (as the politician/father of the little girl who sues to get her back so he can use her to save his political career), Laura Linney stars as his wife, Catherine OHara is a woman who befriends Michael McCann, and Stephen Baldwin is the crook who steal his money (also brother of Gabriel Byrne's character).

The script is wonderful, and the acting is fantastic. This is just a wonderful movie to watch.

4

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Steve Martin plays Freddy Benson and Michael Cain plays Lawrence Jamison. They are (on their own) con men. Lawrence con rich widows out of their money and Freddy is just a grifter who happens to meet up with Lawrence on a train. Freddy makes a move to set up shop in Lawrence's town, so Lawrence comes up with a plan to make Freddy want to leave (which is hilarious in its execution), but of course it fails and Freddy makes his move again to set up in the town. Lawrence makes a bet with Freddy that the first person to take $50,000.00 off the next woman they see who comes out of the plane or train station, will win and get to live in the town. Glenne Headley shows up and they find out that she's an American "Soap Heiress"; and the boys are off and running.

This movies is directed by Frank Oz, and he hadn't had a completed trailer to offer to the studios for promotional purposes. The trailer that he came up with is one of my favorite movie trailers ever. Of course I can't find it on the internet (what's up with that). But it is on the DVD (with commentary from Frank Oz). The trailer I'm talking about has Steve and Michael dressed in tuxes walking along the Riviera, with someone speaking about the movie. At the end of the trailer you see Steve reach out and push someone (who was bending over, looking into the Riviera) into the water. Meanwhile (I didn't catch this when I saw the preview when it came out), Michael reaches over a baby stroller and steals the candy from a baby. I still laugh just thinking about it.

5

My Blue Heaven (1990)

Steve plays my favorite character "Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli", a mobster that gets caught but trades evidence in return for being put in the witness protection program. This is a "fish out of water" story. Steve is just fantastic as Vinnie (who eventually finds other "mobster" type people in the same town who also gave up information in exchange for being put into witness protection). Rick Moranis is the FBI handler for Vinnie (an uptight sort of guy who learns to live by Vinnie). Carol Kane plays a love interest for Steve (and they are very funny together). Joan Cusack plays a cop in the town where Vinnie is put to live and she winds up arreting him a couple times for various criminal activities. She winds up marrying Rick's character. This movies is just a funny character driven movie (which Steve does often). The best part of the movie is when Steve teaches Rick to do the 'merengue' (I probably spelled it wrong, it's the dance not the dessert topping). William Hickey plays Billy Sparrow (who gets Vinnie back into starting a "mob" in their town).

6

Leap Of Faith (1992)

A drama. Steve plays "Jonas Nightengale" a fake faith healer who brings his troupe around the mid-west. Their tour bus breaks down in one town, and they set up their show while waiting to get it fixed. Debra Winger plays his cohort/manager (Jane Larson) who falls for the town sheriff (Liam Neeson). The main part of the movie is about faith which Jonas has absolutely none of--until he actually (accidentally) heals a kid (Lucas Haas), which causes a brouhaha in his gang. (Meatloaf and Phillip Seymour Hoffman play part of his crew). This movie is a great character study movie about faith and what it means to people.

7

All Of Me (1984)

Steve plays a lawyer named "Roger Cobb" who is engaged to his boss's daughter. He is put in charge of a millionaire's estate (Edwina Cutwater--fantastically played by Lilly Tomlin). Roger finds out that Edwina is attempting to put her soul into one of her employees daughter's body (Terry Hoskin - Ex-Mrs. Martin, Victoria Tennent). The plan goes wrong and Edwina's soul gets put into Roger's body, and they wind-up sharing his body. They also find out there was another plan all along, Hoskins (father and daughter) were planning on taking Edwina's Estate (not believing that the body switch would actually work); Roger had already written up the Will saying that Terry gets the Estate when Edwina died (and Edwina had signed it). By the end of the movie, Roger winds up broken-up with his fiance, and Edwina gets put where she's supposed to be put. Steve shows his true goofiness in this movie.

8

Parenthood (1989)

Steve plays Gil Buckman a father of two, still married (to Mary Steenburgen). The movie centers on Gil, but it is an ensemble piece. Jason Robards plays Gil's father, Diane Wiest plays one of Gil's sister (whose two children are played by Martha Plimpton and a very young Joaquin Phoenix; and Martha's boyfriend is played by Keaneu Reeves); Tom Hulce and Harley Kozak play Gil's other two siblings, with Harley's charachter "Susan" married to Rick Moranis (I think this is the third movie they've been in together). Directed by Ron Howard, it's a very good movie that doesn't feel dated as most movies like this usually feel. [ABC has made a series out of it, but I've only seen one episode and it really didn't catch my attention.]

9

Mixed Nuts (1994)

Steve plays a man named Phillip who runs a suicide hotline. The entire movie takes place during one night (Christmas Eve). This is another ensemble piece and his co-stars are Madeline Kahn, Carl Reiner, Adam Sandler, Liev Schrieber, Robert Klein, Rita Wilson (Mrs. Tom Hanks), Jon Stewart, and Joley Fisher (Carrie's sister). I saw this on video, and I'm not even sure if it was released in the theatres or not. It's not a film for everyone (it is a black-comedy), but I found it very entertaining.

10

Housesitter (1992)

Steve plays Newton Davis, an architecht who builds a house as an engagement ring for his girlfriend (who says no). This breaks Newton, who goes back to New York where he winds up having a one night stand with Goldie Hawn (who is too funny in this movie as Gwen Phillips). Newton thinks that Gwen is a German waitress who doesn't speak English (and Gwen doesn't tell him any different). So during their drunken night (which is what catches her attention in the first place) Newton drew the house and told Gwen the whereabouts of where the house is. Gwen immediately goes to where the abandoned house is and moves in. It's in an old style town (where people know everyone's business, and they have tabs for people at stores); so Gwen tells people she's Newton's new wife. Newton finds out that "someone" is living at his house, he goes back and finds Gwen. There's alot of lies thrown around (with Gwen starting them and Newton keeping up with her), but in the end things finally turn right and Gwen and Newton get together. This movie has some truly funny bits with Goldie doing some hilarious scenes (especially when she goes to a work-out place). Goldie and Steve work very well together. A very good comedy.

Other Work/Honorable Mention:



Traitor (2008)

Steve gets a "Story" credit for this movie. "Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) is a former soldier, a devout Muslim, and U.S. citizen in the Middle East selling bomb detonators to Islamic radicals. He joins their cause as both the FBI and a rogue CIA agent track him. Horn escapes a Yemeni prison, goes underground in France where he proves his abilities, and is sent to the United Starts to choreograph a simultaneous and multiple terror attack." Don Cheadle is one of my favorite dramatic actors, and he owns this movie and part. This also stars Guy Pierce and Jeff Daniels. Steve came up with a really good idea in this movie. Definitely worth watching.



The Three Amigos (1986)

Three early 1900's actors, down on their luck, get the job of a lifetime. Steve plays "Lucky Day", Chevy Chase plays "Dusty Bottoms" and Martin Short plays "Ned Nederlander". It's a funny movie. Some people love this alot more than others I have mentioned, but it's a fun movie.



Pennies From Heaven (1981)

This movie is a very dark movie. The only reason I am mentioning it here is because Christopher Walken is in it and he does a very good tab dance in a bar. Other than that, the movie isn't entertaining.



Planes, Trains, And Automobiles (1987)

Steve Martin and John Candy in a John Hughes movie about a guy who is trying to get home for Thanksgiving, and the rather strange man he winds up with as a tag-a-long. I liked this movie, I didn't love it. It had some funny touches to it (that John Hughes is good for), but it also has the sappiness that a lot of John Hughes movies have.



The Jerk (1979)

This movie is what made a name for Steve Martin (besides his stand-up routine). He plays Navin Johnson "a poor black child" who learns on his birthday that he's not his black parents "natural" child. The rest of the movie follows Navin's trials and tribulations. I remember when this movie came out, and my parents told me that I was too young to see it. When I was of age (four years later) I finally got to see it. I wasn't truly impressed with it (I thought his other movies he'd made after that: like The Man With Two Brains and All Of Me were much funnier. But to each his own.



Little Shop Of Horrors (1986)

Steve has a minor role in this, but very memorable. He plays Orin Scrivello, DDS a bike riding, Elvis looking, dentist (and the first complete meal for Audrey Two). The song he sings is still funny. We saw a local high school production of this play a few years ago, and the kid that played the dentist sang the song just like Steve did. That was too funny.

Well, I'm all blogged out right now. Leave a note with your favorite Steve Martin movie. More later, Booboo.

June 1 -- Rabbitt Rabbitt

Rabbitt, Rabbitt. Say it twice at the beginning of the month for good luck! (Found this on the 'net'. (The Pocket Ferengei's garden is in and growing. I will have to keep an eye of the tomatoes to see if one comes out like this.)

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...

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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

Nooobs!

Friday night I stopped by my vets office to get the AOK and to drop off a towel that our kitties had been sitting on all week (so that the new boys could get used to their smells); and picked-up two towels from the vets that the boys had been laying on (so that our gang could get a start on the new smells). The boys are fine and were given the OK to come home.

The girls did their smell tests and they seemed fine (by the time we went to bed they weren't even bothering with it anymore).

Murphy and Spazz were a different story (especially Spazz). Murphy went up to the towel, sniffed it (with the open mouth sniff) and walked away. Spazz...he went over to the towel, sniffed it, then projectile vomitted 3 times. (I took that as a bad sign).

After cleaning up that mess, I called my Shark-boy to see if he could help us with the move on Saturday morning -- he said no problem.

Saturday morning Shark-boy came over at around 11:00 am and we got the show on the road. We got the vet and got the boys loaded up (and I got some picture of my boy Joey -- story and pictures later) and headed home.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we had the windows and doors open (airing out the house). When we got home and loaded the boys out, Smoochy-Romeo went in the house no problem (took off out of the carrier and searched the house, no problem; plopped himself down on the couch and took a nap).

Tanka-Tonk: well, he went in the house, headed straight for the bathroom (someone left the door open) and attempted to hide himself behind our toilet (big kitty, little space). The Pocket Ferengei fished him out from behind the toilet, and Tanka-Tonk proceeded to go and hide under the single chair we have in the living room. (After fishing him out from under there 6 or 7 times, we just let him be).

By the end of the night (after we closed all the windows) Tanka-Tonk showed his trueself...what a love boy. He started looking around the living room and kitchen, went to the big litter box we got for him, and ate some dinner. Then he came over to the PF and I and he flung himself on us for some loving. (Apparently he's a big scaredy cat, he doesn't like loud noises (or wind for that matter), so it looks like we have to keep the windows shut (wherever he is) so he doesn't freak out so much).

Sunday, Bubba came by for dinner and a movie and got her fill of the newboys. (She mentioned something about having Smoochy stop by their house for "awhile"...hehehehe).

So, now we are at day 2 for the newbies. And we are starting the integration of the household. We got home from work and I opened the bedroom so that the girls and guys could get "used" to each other. (Right now Tanka-Tonk is laying on the couch getting some lovin' from the PF and me; Smoochy-Romeo is either in the bedroom (probably staring at Chocolate Moose -- that's the first thing he saw yesterday when he snuck into the bedroom; and he was fascinated with the guinea pig (it's like he's never seen one before, just sat there watching him); Moose didn't do anything (like he normally does).

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys:

Smoochy-Romeo:


and Tanka-Tonk:


Well, I gotta make dinner for the PF. More later, Boo-Boo.

Happy Caturday!

[This was a neat one I think I found on Fark. Wish us luck, we are bringing home the two big boys today.]

More (with hopefully pictures) later, Booboo

Things You DO NOT Want To See Outside Your House When You Get Home From Work.

So last night as we pull onto the road that goes to our house (we live at the end of a one-way street), sitting in front of our house were a cop car and 2 fire trucks. These are things you do not want to see sitting in front of your house--EVER.

Good thing: They weren't for us.

Bad thing: The clowns almost burned their house down. (Cue caliope music). Apparently mother and sister clown are cooking dinners for the homebound/incapacipated people in their church (kudos for them). So mother and sister clown loaded up the car and left to deliver food. Sister clown left the stovetop "on" with a pan of grease on top. Naturally, these things tend to go "flame on" when left alone.

Really bad thing: Brother clown was in the front room with two other children, all watching TV. Apparently the smoke wasn't enough to budge them.

Mother clown gets back from the delivery, goes into the house, went towards the kitchen, saw the flame and smoke and screamed at everybody to get out. [Brother clown actually asked her why...mother clown was incredulous when she was telling me this.]

Good thing: They only lost the stove. They have some smoke damage (they were sitting outside with the doors and windows open when I came back from the store).

I don't make this stuff up; I can't in my wildest dreams even fathom it.

Aaagh; the future's not looking to bright anymore.

More later (hopefully nothing like this); Booboo!

So, Yes, I Am A Sucker.

Last night I made a simple request to the Pocket Ferengei, "Stop at the vet's office so we can pick-up some more dry food for the kitties".

Simple enough, right? Absofrigginlutely not.

Almost as soon as I walked into the office, Kat (one of the assistants) said "I came in this morning and found a kitty carrier stuffed with two, big kitty cats. Want to see them?" Someone left them out in front of the vets office (don't know when becase they close at 2:00 pm on Saturday and nobody comes back to the office until Monday at 8:30 am). No note, nothing.

So, the sucker that I am, went into the back to see the boys. They are big boys. I mean BIG boys. I've got a picture on here somewhere of Phoebe (our resident fat girl) and these boys are bigger than her. I mean, the one is big (structurally) but the other guy is just a big fat fella (all grey).

We had a kitty boy a few years ago almost as big (Bear); and he was such a sweeheart.

So Kat kept telling me how bad she felt for them, and how she can't take anymore (you think I'm bad, she's got 8 indoor and 20 outdoor kitties); the Doc already has three resident kitties (one is my cute little baby boy Joey; I've got to get a picture of him for on here) so she can't keep them.

So, I called the PF in to take a look. The one I was holding (a white/orange tabby) was purring so loud and rubbing all on me. I handed him over to the PF and the kitty boy did the same thing. It was funny seeing the PF hold this massive kittycat (cause he is my POCKET Ferengei for a reason-little bitty guy).

So we hemmed and hawed about it. And we'll be picking the boys up on Saturday.

Wish us luck.

More (photos) later; Booboo.

Follow-up To The Wedding Post

Heh, I don't know if its me; but I think it's 'tacky' posting a note on the bride's Facebook that say:

(1) "Awesome time last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (this was posted on Sunday evening (5:00 pm-ish); and

(2) "had fun lastnight! hope you guys have a great time in vegas and win lots of money!!!! =)" (12:30 am this morning).

As for the first one, very tacky (since I do believe that he was one of the guys that jumped into the fight); and the second one, well let's hope that the bride and groom do "win lots of money" to pay for the damage to the hall.

Right now, my 'earwig' for today is:


"Willy Wonka:
Hold your breath
Make a wish
Count to three

Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be"

(It could be a worse song, but I think it's appropriate for the weekend that just went by.)

More later; Booboo!

A Wedding To Remember

So, it's been a while since I've last blogged. I'm really a boring person (and this blog has shown me that), the movies that we've been getting lately have been really crappy, and it's kind of hard to keep coming up with new and exciting ways to say the movie was a turd. So that's the reason for no blogging.

Well, today changed that.

The Pocket Ferengei and I went to his friend Krueger's wedding to his girlfriend Burns (which is funny in itself when you know that the reboot of the whole "Nightmare On Elm Street" franchise is openning next Friday...but I digress).

Weddings are funny "animals" in themsleves. You have to be sure that the people who are coming are the right mix of people (not the people themselves per se, but the personalities). Some of the time it's a family juggling act you have to do (oh this Aunt can't be seated by that Uncle for some stupid reason); sometimes its friends (will my biker friends get along with his car buddies?). There are a whole bunch of reasons.

People aren't the only thing you have to worry about at weddings, sometimes it's the whole "open bar" thing; other times its the whole "open bar, loose/slutty girlfriends with bad tempered boyfriends" thing.

Tonight's wedding was, sorry to say, the latter.

The bride looked absolutely gorgeous (and she didn't make her bridesmaids feel inferior by wearing goofy wedding dresses, they all looked very lovely); and the groom and his groomsmen (who were all her big brothers by the way) looked handsome. The food was very delicious; and the alcohol was flowing freely. I am not much of a drinker, I actually don't like it (most of the time it's the taste; but mainly because of family history -- my Dad-o was an alcoholic. Those memories of him haven't gone away) but tonight I partook in some: I had 2 Irish Coffees and 2 White Russians...and they didn't skimp on the alcohol either. I had a nice buzz going.

By the end of the night the bride was so smashed she passed out in the privacy room they had set aside for the wedding party. (It's her wedding, she can do whatever she wants.)

The other people, now they have to take responsibility for their own actions.

At this wedding, you could actually see the lines drawn. Her family, her friends, his friends. (His family was very small; and on a personal aside: the other odd thing about the groom is that I used to date his cousin who died a year or so ago. [Small world; keeps getting smaller everyday.] My relationship with his cousin was in the 1990's and didn't last that long.) (But's its still an odd/funny thing that my husband became friends with my ex-boyfriend's cousin.)

We were seated at the back of the hall; and we were seated with a bunch of the SyTy guys and their spouses/significant others (SyTy is the name of their club that my hubby's involved in: the "Syclone" and "Typhoon" car club). It was a good mix at our table.

Around us were the grooms other buddies: his old friends to the left of us, another group of his friends to the right of us (which I got a bad vibe from the whole night), and near us (towards the center of the hall) were a group of his racing buddies. That table was the loudest of the four tables. Then there was another table near them that had some young women at it (one in particular was a girl with knee high jet black highheeled boots on). The other tables were various family members.

So everybody was drinking, dancing and having a good time.

And we get towards the end of the night

The groom is tending to his passed-out bride; then the brawl starts.

I think I heard one guy said it started when the girl with the knee high highheeled boots was out in the main lobby with one of the married guys (I think it was one of the guys at table on the right, but it could have been any of the others, but anyway she jumped on him (face-to-face) and had her legs wrapped around him. Someone went over to her and told her to get off him because he was married. To which she replied "well I'm going to tell my boyfriend" and went and got him.

The boyfriend went out into the lobby (with the rest of his table following behind) and then the shit hit the fan--full-out brawl. At one point it looked like an openning round at a Rugby match...everyone was in one pile moving back and forth across the hall.

They almost broke the table in the center of the hall and the front door-windows (but they didn't--you could see bodies being flung around). They did manage to break one of the pictures on a wall in the hall.

At the end, one guy had a bloody eye (which he was pissed-off about and he started the fight back up which ended with the broken picture). One of the older ladies (I think she might have been the bride's mom) sliced her hand on the glass shards of the picture (I have no idea what she was doing over there.)

But the timeline of the whole melee was: the fight started, everyone got shoved outside, they came back inside-the guy with the bloodied eye started up the fight again, broke the picture, then everyone in the fight got shoved outside when the bride and groom came out (the fight woke her up), then the cops showed up.

Definitely a wedding to remember.

So, to Wesley and Buttercup (who are going to be getting married in a month) -- I do so hope your's go much more smoothly than this one.

More later...Booboo