I was expecting something really bad based on the reviews and really it wasn’t that bad. Maybe it isn’t as funny as Ice Age 1 or 2, but it was still entertaining just not spectacular. For a DVD rental to see with the kids, it’s great. Compare the animation of this movie with Ice Age 1 to see how far animation has come…or you can see Avatar for mind bending animation!

Beauty Academy of Kabul is a documentary that is very touching and shows that people are basically the same everywhere in the world. Even in war torn Afghanistan during the Taliban era. The women there really should be in charge of the country.

Cooked a Turkey yesterday before Thanksgiving because I had bought 2 turkeys this year and only room for 1 in the fridge. I wanted to try cooking Turkey in my CrockPot and so I cut up the Turkey, cooking a Breast, Thigh, and Wing in the CrockPot while the rest was baked in the oven. Both came out really good and tasty. Delicious!

I read the other reviews here about Jarhead before writing mine so I could clarify my thoughts better. Jarhead is not a Full Metal Jacket wannabe movie. In actuality, it is an homage to all war films, and updating it to the Gulf War relates it to a modern audience. Sam Mendes is a great director and although the first part of Jarhead seems to be right out of Full Metal Jacket, I think what I learned is how little the military has changed in 25 years. Also that the infantry man has been rendered irrelevant by technology in large scale wars. (although as we know in Afghanistan, that there are limits to what we can do against a guerrilla force).

People complained that there was no plot, but I disagree. The frustration of life and war is represented here, and you feel uneasy just as the characters do in their situation. This movie is a slice of life which I thought was worth watching.

This is a very well written and acted look into a suburban polygamists family. After watching it, I don’t think anyone would envy the life of a polygamist based on the family’s infighting not only within their own home but with their screwed up relatives. I think it treats the subject very fairly, even through it seems like there is a nonstop list of problems facing the family every day. All the characters fit together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle and that’s not easy to do, nor to take such different personalities and weave them into a cohesive family. But that’s what makes this series brilliant. I know I originally watched season one in 2008, and still waiting for Netflix to get season 3 so I can get caught up.

Sliders is a fun show, not the best made and a bit far-fetched in that the main characters are also important/notible people no matter what world they visit, but I added it to my Netflix instant queue and can now watch them very easily on my TV with my kids since I never really follow any TV series except after it finishes it’s television run. It does beat watching infomercials anytime!

Maxed out tells the story of people hurt or killed by their credit card debt. Hurt financially and causing some to commit suicide. It blames credit card companies for predatory lending practices, but is not a balanced view of the industry and makes the people taken advantage of look like stupid ignorant fools. It’s worth seeing, but it really plays the blame game more than suggest solutions to the problems people have with credit.

Any movie sequel has a hard time because it’s always compared to the original. I thought the ridiculous action scenes like the chase in London and collapse of the ancient city were just a bit too much to stomach. Everything from the bad guys stealing the clues to kidnapping the president seemed forced, pushed along by the need to have more action and nothing else. I guess contrived is the better word. It would have been a better movie for me with less crazy action and more storytelling.

I admit I am not a big horror fan, and only watched this with my sons because I thought it would be a good scare on Holloween not that they are too old for Trick or Treating. But the movie was not that great, and not that scary even. I thought the stories about the victims and what they “did” to deserve their fates was not that interesting, and the police response when they go in the field to try and catch him was completely unrealistic. No radios, no backup, no PPE. Unbelievable.

I decided to make this weekend a Stanley Kubrick film festival and watched this with my teenage son because I knew he could understand what the movie was trying to say about violence in society and political control. Again the HD quality watching it this time was amazing, but the violence is hard to stomach.