You Know Its Bad When...

You find the soundtrack commentary of a movie more riveting than the movie itself. I had the misfortune of watching Queen of the Damned... something I saw when it first came out, but forgot that it was pretty bad so rented it again (calm down, I only spent .50).

The movie may have been fine if it had done a decent job of following Ann Rice's story, but it didn't. You could tell it didn't when the guy from Linkin Park tried very hard to say something nice about the movie but could only come up with "In the movie Lestat is a Rock Star and that's what it was like in the book..." Yep, that's about it.

The thing I hated most was that they had Marius as his maker and got the Marius character all wrong. And they made Jessie a big dork as well as having Lestat make Jessie, and I think it was Mael who did it after she nearly died at the concert. But I'm fuzzy on that one, its been years since I've read it but I think it may have been my favorite in the Vampire Chronicles.

But, seriously, it had a great soundtrack. The dude from Korn did it and because he couldn't sing because of some contractual issues, he had his musical peer group do it for him. And Aaliya sure did have a wicked cool walk as Akasha, the Queen. Here's a clip, but be warned --near the end she rips the heart of the vampire out and eats it. ...But not in a scary way... lol




Books into movies are seldom as good as the original thing. Another book into movie I thought sucked bad was Golden Compass. Just plain bad, they changed things with no discernible motivation for doing so and they ended the movie just before the book's climax. Weird. If you've read the book, don't waste your time on the movie.

Now, one movie that I thought was better than the book was Practical Magic. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Its about sisters, love, overcoming the past and kicking evil ass! The soundtrack was excellent as well, see below for a great Stevie Nicks/Sheryl Crow song. But the book...forgettable. I remember finishing reading it after I saw the movie and thinking how much better the movie was. There are scenes that still give me chills, a gazillions times of watching later.

And why am I ranting about movies right now? Because Boogs is nearly asleep on the couch after having puked twice, I'm sitting in the dark when I need to be working on Christmas gifts for this weekend and I have to go potty really bad but am afraid the moment I do will happen to coincide with the third bout of puking. So I'm trying to distract myself. Hopefully I didn't distract you from anything good.

Enjoy Stevie Nicks!



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Sunday Films:Stupid Teenage Girl Edition

Ashlee's blog got me thinking about some of my favorite movies. And I don't mean the kind that change your life and make you see the world in a different way, but the kind that you watch every single time it comes on, no matter what you're doing. I'm that way with one of Ashlee's favorites (check her blog to see which one). And here are a few 0thers I LOVE. Don't judge me too harshly, all of these except the first one, involve a small amount of stupid and or catty teenage girls!

Practical Magic. I love this movie, I love the sister theme, magic in today's world and the whole love story line that comes in. I loved it soo much that I bought the sound track and don't skip past the Shania Twain song (no offense to any country fans)



Pleasantville is also a great movie, this one has its hidden meanings and lessons but is also a really fun watch.



Bring it On, which is a just really funny. I said not to look at me like that!



Ok, bear with me on this one. Its actually pretty funny. The girls dress up as pregnant Betty Dolls to rob a bank when the captain of the squad gets knocked up and needs to make a life for her dim wit boyfriend and baby to be. Sounds pretty horrid, the trailer doesn't do it justice, its quite funny. Or it was when I was in college. But hey, while I'm going with the cheer theme I thought why not? So think about renting Sugar and Spice



"I've seen yams that have more going on upstairs than those two" this is said by Dave Foley, playing Bob Haldeman about the two main characters in Dick. This movie is a MUST SEE. It's about two stupid teenage girls who become the downfall of the Nixon administration. The best is Will Ferrell and Some Guy From Kids in the Hall who play Woodward and Bernstein. They sort of hate each other, Bernstein is always trying to get in on what Woodward has going on, Will Ferrell at one point yells at him "Get away! You smell like cabbage!" OMG, SO FUNNY! The trailer has a stupid 30 second commercial right before it starts, so just be patient.

visit videodetective.com for more info

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Meet the Robinsons: Kids Flick Pick

Meet the Robinsons, originally uploaded by knoopie.

This week we got this movie from Netflix. Kiki loves it, Boogs would like it better if he were a bit older, but JimmyEW and I really enjoyed watching this one.

Its about a orphan boy inventor named Lewis, stuff goes wrong, kid from future comes to try to help Lewis, kid and Lewis end up in the future and chaos ensues.

This movie is not only really fun to watch, but it has a good story and a great lesson. Its all about not focusing on the bad things that happen to you in life but find the good, "Keep Moving Forward" and take responsibility for your life.

I even almost cried once during this movie, right at the end.

I recommend this movie, it has some scary Matrix-esq moments at the very end so be a be careful with that part. But otherwise this is a good watch.

No See TV: Monday Week in Review

Wow. I realized Sunday night I didn't have a blog for Monday! Here I am, sitting in church trying to listen to the sermon about the walk to Emmaus, and I'm thinking about blogging. I didn't even realize I was doing it. Bad me.

Normally, I try my best to blog ahead of time, on the weekends JimmyEW works, his late nights and during my lunch hour. That way we can spend our time together gazing into each other's eyes instead of me blogging and him watching me blog. Lol! So when I was sitting in church I suddenly felt like a girl who forgot she had a book report on Monday. Therefore, I am giving you a book report (oddly) and a few movie reviews. Enjoy.



Stardust, is a wonderfully fun movie based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. This movie is about a young man of interesting origin, going on a quest to find a fallen star for the snooty English village girl he "loves". The star ends up being Claire Danes and there are numerous bad guys after her. There is magic, adventure, love, unicorns and, my favorite, a cross dressing pirate. JimmyEW LOVED this movie and I quite enjoyed it. It doesn't have any bad language, that I can remember, no nudity but has some scary witch stuff.

The Author, Neil, is good friends with Tori Amos and wrote this novel while staying at a house she lent him. In the book she appears as a tree, she didn't make the movie (they filmed it but it got cut, and I didn't see it in the deleted scenes-sad face). I am definitely going to read this book now. Because as much as I enjoyed the Movie, I am certain the book will be better.




Across the Universe was a JimmyEW pick and was absolutely entertaining to watch. The movie takes place during the turmoil of the 60's, race riots and Vietnam. This movie is essentially a musical with cast members dancing and singing to the Beatles and other artists of the day. Bono, who everyone knows I love, makes an appearance wearing a fake nose. He plays a psychedelic guru and he sings! Any U2 fan will find this movie worth the watch just for that part.

The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that I didn't find the main characters terribly compelling and didn't find myself very invested in their future. I was, however, very invested in Max, the brother of the main character. You should watch it just to see him.

Below, is probably my favorite part of the movie, its all about Max trying to get out of the draft. Just watch and try not to go rent this movie afterwards. Regardless of the flaws in charecter development, Across the Universe is so fun to watch that you really don't care. You are just caught up in the action, song and dance.




Plus, the end, for me, rivaled the end of Say Anything with the whole boombox scene. It has some nudity, sex, drug use and Strong language. I don't think they use the F-word though.



I watched Enchanted Saturday night with my mother (then again on Sunday with JimmyEw...who had just watched it while I was at church. He had a tummy ache). This movie was excellent. It was fun, clean and has a great love story. Susan Sarandon is wonderful as the Queen and Amy Adams does an excellent job as playing an illustrated maiden in the real world. Just watch how she holds her hands. I think this was probably my favorite of the three, JimmyEW's was Stardust.

Finally...the book I finished this week. If you can call what I did "reading" since I didn't really absorb it...

This book has a very compelling storyline. Its based on an African cultural belief about death and the dead. Some cultures believe that you die but don't depart in the great otherworld but instead first go into a sort of waiting world. You remain there for as long as you are remembered by the living. And not like all of us remember Abe Lincoln, but how we remember people in our life. Our parents, our neighbor, the lady that drives the bus. All those people stay around in "the city" until the very last person who knew them in life dies. This book is about those people and about a living woman who is trying to survive alone in the Arctic. It is about connections you make, the people you remember and the life you live while alive and dead.

I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love it. I was so excited about reading it. But I had a very hard time with it. I found myself skipping entire chapters, which I NEVER do. To me, it almost read like a series of short stories and memories and I wanted to know what was going to happen. It went by painfully slow for me. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood to read this book. Maybe I wanted something that was more fast paced, I don't know. But it is worth a look, I wouldn't nix this book just because I didn't love it. As I said, it has an interesting story and the whole end of world theme gives you something to chew on.

So there you have it. That's what I did all week. Let me know if you've enjoyed any of the things I've talked about here, especially if you have a different opinion.
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I Big Fat Cream Filled Heart Micheal Moore

Sicko Michael Moore, originally uploaded by cutup.

I just finished watching SICKO with JimmyEW. This movie was PHENOMENAL!! Its about the healthcare industry and insurance companies and the effect on the American People. If you watch it for no other reason that to hear the conversations Nixon had about private healthcare the DAY before he announced his new Health Care Plan, it will have been worth your time.

Che Guevara's daughter in Cuba said something that really struck me. She said the richer a country is and the more it produces, the better it should take care of its people. I liked that.

This movie made us cry, laugh and get angry. We now want to do something about it but sadly we are only two people. But you know what Margaret Mead says,“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does”

Flight of the Conchords: No See TV-My Life Without Cable

Welcome to another installment of No See TV! I bet you were just thinking to yourself "I wonder what Sassy has from Netflix this week". Well I'll tell you.

Lately I've been watching this quirky little show called Flight of the Conchords. This is an HBO show I learned about from the same place I learn everything which is NPR. It's about a real life pop/folk/comedy band from New Zealand trying to make it in the U.S. Think Weird Al only cuter and with an accent.

This show is hilarious. They have this straight faced humor and delivery that you can't help laughing about. Below you'll find a clip where Jermaine is at a party singing about a girl that he finds to be "the Prettiest girl in the room" and "the prettiest girl on the street, depending on the street and the time of day".



It's quite funny, but not as funny as the love song that Bret writes for his girlfriend telling her all the things he'd do for her. His original song started out with him climbing mountains and swallowing swords for her until Jermaine questions him on if he'd really do that. When Bret admits he wouldn't his song turns into a song called "What You're Into" essentially about how he would hang out with her and maybe have sex, if she's into it.



This show had Jimmy Eat World and I laughing our butts off. Especially the Episode called "Mugged" where Bret abandons Jermaine leaving him to fend for himself against two muggers. What happens with Jermaine and one of the muggers is so funny and ridiculous that you just have to watch the episode to really appreciate it.

All in all I give this 4 of 5 stars:
some crude humor
some swearing

My other Netflix movies (which I have yet to watch because of my other blogligations)

Dear Frankie: My limited understanding of this movie is that it is about a single mom (in Ireland maybe) who writes to a fake father of her son. Her sons wants to meet his dad so she goes out and finds someone to play the role. It looked good in a preview so I added it to my queue.

Black Snake Moan. I'm particularly Excited to watch Black Snake Moan so don't let the post scare you. From what I know of this Sam Jackson finds a crack whore type (I don't think she's really a crack whore) played by Christina Ricci and takes her home to rehabilitate her and make her see the error of her ways. In the beginning he holds her against her will by chaining her to a radiator so he can talk to her about how she lives her life.

Has anyone seen either of these movies? What are some movies I should put in my Queue??

No See TV: Life Without Cable part I

So my dearest Jimmy Eat World and I got rid of cable. We decided we wanted to spend more time time sitting and staring into each others eyes or writing poetry...can you hear Honey Bunch retching right now? But really, the expense just wasn't merited, we weren't watching anything worthwhile and wanted to be watching less anyway. TV was just serving as a distraction from life and from each other. So we canceled it and because we live in the Hobbit Hole our bunny ears only gets PBS and if you squint you can make out CBS, NBC and ABC- and that is with tin foil and a precariously balanced fork. Now I can't be expected to just sit and do nothing on nights when Jimmy Eat World is working his late hours so I get things to watch from Netflix. For a mere $16 a month we get 3 movies at one time unlimited plus all I want to watch online! As I go through my viewings I'll give you a little review of what I'm watching.

This month will be my Firefly Review.

Firefly was created by Writer/Director Joss Whedon who also did Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Angel series. Joss Weadon is an excellent writer director and this shows in all his work. The thing I like about him is that he keeps you guessing and no one is ever safe. He will kill off people you love therefore you are always on the edge of your seat wondering.

When you think Firefly think space cowboys with hearts of gold. This series only ran for one season but had such a hardcore fan base that after it was canceled they came out with the full length motion picture Serenity to wrap up where the series left off. This movie was fairly successful and opened at number two. Think about that- a major motion picture coming out of a short lived canceled series. Pretty cool huh?

Meet Malcolm Reynolds, renegade smuggler captain of the Firefly ship named Serenity and former Sargent in the war between the Alliance and the Independents. He was on the losing side and Serenity starts around 6 years after the war. Zoe is his first mate as she was in the war with him and always calls him Captain. She is totally sassy, she fights, slings pistols, is smart and funny and totally hot. She's married to Wash, who pilots Serenity and adores her to no end and he's very funny!

Jayne, who is your shiftless no-good, back-stabbing, pig-stealing hornball jerk. He's likable because he's super funny but he'd sell his mother if the price was right. Occasionally his conscious creeps in on him and you can see him struggling to cope with the feelings of guilt that are not something he's used to. Kaylee is a cute down homey girl who is a wiz mechanic, good hearted and has a serious crush on the Doctor.

The non-crew inhabitants are Inara, who "rents" space in the ships pod and is a registered companion which is essentially a very high class call girl but more respectable and sought after. There are sparks that fly between her and Mal quite a bit.

Simon, the Doctor and River, his sister are what often ends up complicating the lives of the crew of Serenity. Simon enters as a wealthy doctor looking for transport but you find out that he rescued his sister from an elite school of sorts and is now wanted by the Alliance.

River is a very psychologically damaged girl and he tries to figure out what happened to her so he can help treat her. Their relationship is very loving and you come to understand that he gave up his whole life to try to save his little sister.

Shepherd Book is the Preacher Man. He's funny, knows more about politics, guns and such than you would expect from someone living in an abbey to know. There is more to him than meets the eye. Together they make up a little family/community on board their ship and you can see they have genuine affection for one another.

One of the things I love most about this show is the opening song that plays with the credits, this was written by Joss as well. It sounds like an old cowboy singing about independence and I can't stop myself from singing along each time it plays. Watching it just now made me a little...weepy almost...I just really grew to love these characters and I'm sad that this show was so short lived. ...sigh.

You HAVE to watch the opening credits below if for no other reason but to hear the great theme song.

Firefly is well written, the characters are compelling and the dialogue is really funny. It's good men (and women) in hard times still doing what is right because its right. Its a shame it only lasted one season.
****************************************
5 of 5 stars.
some sexual situations
partial nudity (like the side of an ass or a bare back)
Violence...lots of it but not gory.

...what? There's a writers strike? I hadn't noticed! During this programing drought what are you doing with your time while you wait for the latest episode of Desperate Housewives?
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My Life With Out Cable: Part One

So Darling Dear and I got rid of cable. We decided we wanted to spend more time time sitting and staring into each others eyes or writing poetry. Lol, but really, the expense just wasn't merited. So we canceled and because we live in the Hobbit Hole our bunny ears only get NBC, CBS, PBS and ABC if you squint. Now I can't be expected to just sit and do nothing on nights when Darling Dear is working so I get things to watch from Netflix, a mere $16 a month!

So as I go through my series I'll give you a little review of what I'm watching.

This month has been Firefly.

Firefly was created by Writer/Director Joss Whedon who also did Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. When you think Firefly think Space Cowboys with hearts of gold. This series only ran for one season but had such a hardcore fanbase that after it was canceled they came out with the movie Serenity to wrap up what the series left out.

Meet Malcome Reynolds, Outlaw smuggler captain of the Serenity and former Sargeant in the war between the Alliance and the Independents. He was on the losing side and Serenity starts around 6 years after the war.

Zoe is his first mate as she was in the war with him and always calls him Captain. She is totally sassy, she fights, slings pistols, is smart and funny and totally hot. She's married to Wash, who she didn't like when she first met him. He pilots Serenity and adores her to no end.

Jane, who is your shiftless no good back stabbing pig stealing hornball jerk. He's likable because he's super funny but he'd sell his mother if the price was right. Occassionally his conscious creeps in on him and you can see him struggling to cope with the feelings of guilt that are not something he's used to.

Kaylee is a cute downhomey girl who is a wiz machanic, good hearted and has a serious crush on the Doctor.

Inara who "rents" space in the ships pod and is a registered companion which is essentially a very high class call girl but more respectable and sought after. There are sparks that fly between her and Mal quite a bit.

Simon, the Doctor and River, his sister. They are what often ends up complicating the lives of the crew of Serenity. Simon enters as a wealthy doctor looking for transport. You find out that he recued his sister from an elite school of sorts and is now wanted by the Alliance. She is a very psychologically damaged girl and he tries to figure out what happened to her so he can help treat her. Their relationship is very loving and you come to undestand that he gave up his whole life to try to save his little sister.

Shephard Book is the Preacher Man. He's funny, knows more about politics, guns and such than you would expect someone living in an abbey to know. There is more to him, but I'm not sure what yet because I have two more episodes to watch and I need to rewatch the movie Serenity. Beside I wouldn't tell you because that would ruin it for you.

Serenity is well writen, the charecters are compelling and the dialogue is really funny. It's good men (and women) in hard times still doing what is right because its right. Its a shame it only lasted one season.

****************************************

4 of 5 stars.

some sexual situations

partial nudity (like the side of an ass or a bare back)

Violence...lots of it but not gory.






























































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