Topic: Battlestar Galactica, The Forbidden Kingdom, NCAA

*Battlestar Galactica S4 finally comes back next Friday. I am pretty pumped. Although S3 was a bit rocky, I hope this final season wraps everything up nicely.



*I joined two NCAA basketball brackets (one for work and one for donuts) and shockingly I'm doing decent in both considering I know NOTHING about college basketball. I will say playing has made me care about the games. I actually want UCLA to win since I have them in my Final Four.

*The trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom looks awful. Yes you get the great Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same movie but what is with Jackie's bad wig job and a random white kid played by Michael Angarano (who was Jack's son from Will and Grace). Oh well. I'm still going on April 18th. HA HA. I have to support my AZNs :)

Hannah Takes the Stairs (Joe Swanberg, 2007) Grade: D
The basic story line of this romantic comedy is recent college graduate Hannah wants to dump her current boyfriend. Even though he is sweet and nice to her, she ends the relationship. (Of course, he also is unemployed, since he just didn’t want to keep doing things that made him unhappy, and work wasn’t making him happy, so he decides to do nothing.) Hannah then starts to date a co-worker, who is a self-absorbed writer who has recently signed a deal to turn his blog into a book. (They all work at a production company thinking of political comedy sketches.) When the self-absorbed careerist devotes less time to Hannah than she expects, she falls for another co-worker, a sensitive writer who is on several anti-depressants to get over this one really bad break-up. If this plot doesn’t already turn you off, you can watch it for yourself. I have two copies... Or read the reviews on Netflix. They were pretty entertaining. More so than this movie.

Topic: X-Files - Greatest TV show ever!!!

*I went to the PaleyFest today to see the X-Files. Sadly David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were not present but I did get to see Mitch Pileggi, Dean Haglund and Nicholas Lea. In addition, many of the directors and writers were present as well as the creator Chris Carter. I was thrilled to be there and it was fun :) We got to watch the trailer for the new untitled film which comes out July 25th TWICE so that was a treat. I got goosebumps.

I won't go into too much detail since I'm sure no one here cares that much. After they talked everyone mobbed the stage to get autographs. I usually don't care for that sort of stuff but got caught up in the moment... hee hee. Below is a picture of the program with Chris Carter, Mitch Pileggi and Dean Haglund's signature. I wanted to get Frank Spotnitz, the head writer, as well but oh well. After the whole ordeal it made me really realized how much I love the X-Files, how I wish I brought more stuff for them to sign and how much I need to rewatch all nine seasons :)

HE is risen.

(M) Veuve de Saint-Pierre, La (The Widow of Saint-Pierre). (Patrice Leconte, 2000) Grade: C+

Thoughts: Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil were great; however I can not say the same for the rest of the movie. It was slow-paced and a bit uninteresting.

(M) Sunshine. (Danny Boyle, 2007) Grade: B-

Thoughts: The sun is dying and a team of astronauts are sent to restart it by setting off a bomb. The movie started off pretty good but then becomes a bit of a mess towards the end. The cast was mixed with good (Cliff Curtis and Michelle Yeoh) and not-so-good (Chris Evans and Troy Garity) actors.

(M) Darkon. (Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel, 2006) Grade: C
Thoughts: A documentary about LARP-ers (live action role playing) in the universe called Darkon. I wish they had spent more time on the personal lives of the people and less on the Darkon storyline but oh well.

(M) Kate & Leopold. (James Mangold, 2001) Grade: C

Thoughts: Leopold (Hugh Jackman) travels to present time by a freak accident and meets Kate McKay (Meg Ryan) and they fall in love. I would have enjoyed it more but there were too many time travel scientific issues with it especially at the end. Hugh Jackman was great in the movie and Meg Ryan was cute but she has aged a bit. Oh and there was a random Breckin Meyer appearance.

(M) Return to Me. (Bonnie Hunt, 2000) Grade: C+

Thoughts: Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) loses his wife in a car accident. On that same night, Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver) lives due to a heart transplant, the heart of Bob’s wife. The story plot was pretty unbelievable but I did like Bonnie Hunt’s script and the entire cast was good. Unfortunately, there was zero chemistry between David and Minnie.

(M) Valley Girl. (Martha Coolidge, 1983) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Julie (Deborah Foreman), a girl from the Valley, meets Randy (Nicolas Cage), a punk from Hollywood and they fall in love. It was cheesy and lame and totally dated and yet I loved it and ate it up. Nicolas Cage was cute in an odd way back in the day.

Movie Count: 21

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Topic: Vegas, Raveonettes, Netflix, tooth

*I went to Vegas recently with Darth and some friends. It was fun except when I lost money and got a bad tummyache. We walked around, drank, had the Wynn buffet and Delmonicao Steakhouse. I realized I like steak but I can't eat that much meat in one sitting. This was the first time I flew to Vegas and unfortunately it had to be one of the worst experiences I ever had. We booked using Orbitz and last minute they changed our flight coming home. Instead of a direct flight from Vegas to LAX, we had to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah then back to LAX. To matters worse that flight was delayed for two hours. Ugh. We were all not pleased to say the least, so in conclusion NEVER use Orbitz to book your flights.


*Saw the Raveonettes at the El Rey last week for at least the 10th time. They are such a kick arse band! I love them and the new album Lust Lust Lust is great great great. It is a much stronger album going back to their Chain Gang of Love / Whip It On sound compared to Pretty In Black. Pictures below taken at El Rey thanks to Scenestar people :)



*I got my left wisdom tooth pulled this past Friday. It was much more painful compared to when I got my right one done two weeks ago. I could hear the cracking of the tooth as it was being extracted. The sound will haunt me to the end of my days.


*After many years of Netflix devotion, I recently put my account on hold. I've been using their services since 2003 but felt it was time for a much needed break. Although it will be odd not to receive a red envelope in the mail each week, it will give me time to catch up on the dvds Pigern got me as well as TV and I can save a few bucks.

(M) Vertigo. (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Det. John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) who is suffering from acrophobia begins to investigate the strange activities of a friend’s wife (Kim Novak) all the while getting dangerously obsessed with her. The images of San Francisco throughout the movie were wonderful; this film is very classic Hitchcock.

(M) The Bourne Ultimatum. (Paul Greengrass, 2007) Grade: B+

Thoughts: Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) comes closer to figuring out his past and who he is while running from new, superior assassins. This was an enjoyable action movie that wraps up the Bourne trilogy nicely. However, I would not mind seeing more movies about Bourne because he is such an interesting character.

(M) The Last King of Scotland. (Kevin Macdonald, 2006) Grade: B-

Thoughts: The Last King of Scotland is loosely based upon the life of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) told from the eyes of his personal physician Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) in the 1970’s. The film would have been better if they focused less on Dr. Nicholas Garrigan and more on Idi Amin. Forest Whitaker did such an amazing job and absolutely deserved that Oscar win. Also, it was nice to see Gillian Anderson even if her role was small.

(M) Xizao (Shower). (Yang Zhang, 1999) Grade: B-

Thoughts: A city businessman returns to his rural hometown because he thinks his father is dying. In reality, his father is fine and running the local bathhouse business with the help of his mentally challenged younger brother. It was a nice movie about family and father/son relationships.

(M) Sheng Xia Guang Nian (Eternal Summer). (Leste Chen, 2006) Grade: C+

Thoughts: Jonathan (Bryant Chang) and Shane (Hsiao-Chuan Chang) are best friends. Jonathan meets Carrie (Kate Yeung) and they begin to hang out. Carrie wants more than just friends; however Jonathan is in love with Shane. It reminded me a bit of Brokeback Mountain in that Jonathan could not come to terms his sexuality and he felt so ashamed for how he felt. Although the movie was under 90 minutes some parts did drag and the ending was a bit over dramatic.

(M) Um Fa (The Longest Nite). (Johnnie To, Yau Dat-Zi, 1997) Grade: C+

Thoughts: A decent cop thriller that takes place in Macau starring Tony Leung, Lau Ching Wan and Maggie Siu. The storyline was all over the place but the action was pretty good.

Movie Count: 15