Mirrors and Topic Thunder Movie Review
Current mood: satisfied
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
*** Semi-Spoiler Alert***
Kiefer Sutherland's produced and stars in MIRRORS which opened Friday. I have been waiting to see this film since I saw the trailer at X-Files 2. I love thrillers - not necessarily horror - but a good mystery with a sprinkle of blood and guts (or in this case blood and jaws). This movie does deliver that. However, after watching the trailer again, I can confirm that most of the "scary" parts are pretty much summed up in that two minute trailer from the 110-minute film.
Ben Carson (Sutherland), a former New York City cop who is suspended after an accidental shooting, is separated from his wife (Paula Patton) and two young kids. He lives at his sister's (Amy Smart) and takes pills to keep from drinking. Ben takes a night job guarding the charred remains of the Mayfield department store.
I will try my best not to spoil the plot (completely) for those who want to see this flick, but the title of the movie kinda gives away that the huge and numerous mirrors in the burnt building play a major role in driving certain people nuts who are ultimately driven on a quest to find "Esseker". Ben (not the supervisor who has been working the grounds for 15 years) has his first encounter with the mirrors' powers and influence within the first couple of nights of his new night job.
Is this a scary film? Hard for me to answer since I was raised on "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" with the occasional "The Shining" type flick and any Hitchcock film (yea, my mom did not pay much attention to the 10 or older film ratings). Later, "Nightmare of Elm Street" films became the catalog of horror of which I compared all other films too. This film is not in this arena but does have its peek-out-of-one-eye moments.
Flaws: The few jumps that you do get are from the cliche of animals lurching towards a window and they really did over-do-it with the pigeons flapping around as if this was an abandoned church with a 16th century steeple. Also, Ben cuts his hand on the mirror and shortly after touches his white shirt leaving no blood but the next scene shows Ben running to the security trailer to pour alcohol on his deeply cut hand.
I love Sutherland so some bias there, but I thought the plot was original enough to make it interesting and the all-out good v. evil fight towards the end was decent. The best part of the film, I my humble opinion, is the ending. Not typical and nice wrap to this kind of film.
Therefore I recommend at least renting it if you don't see it in the theater. (But I have always found that thrillers/horrors work best when viewed with an audience).
I also saw Topic Thunder and liked it a lot. However, I will leave that review to the professionals. See Jerry's review at Topic Thunder Movie Review
The release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been pushed back by eight months, to July 2009.
The sixth instalment of the teenage wizard's adventures was supposed to have its Royal premiere on 17 November.
Alan Horn, president of studio Warner Bros, said the decision was taken to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009.
He also blamed the Hollywood writers' strike, which hit the film industry hard earlier this year.
Mr Horn said the strike, which ended in February, had "impacted the readiness of scripts for other films."
He said: "The picture is completely, absolutely, 100% on schedule, on time. There were no delays.
I am confused. If the strike didn't have an "impact" on this script and the picture is 100% on schedule, then why is Mr. Horn blaming the Hollywood writers' strike? Blaming them for what? The delay is for more money (it is always about the money)?..?
"I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."
The move will mean a two-year delay between the film adaptations of books five and six in JK Rowling's fantasy series.
But it will shorten fans' wait between Half-Blood Prince and the final two instalments of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which are being shot simultaneously next year.
Like Most People, I Hate Change
Current mood: grumpy
Category: Life
For those of you who are satillite radio subscribers, I am sure, like me, you are all a flutter with the news that Sirus and XF have joined forces.
The excitement generated is not that from a new selection of channels and/or personalities that subscribers will have as a result of the merger, most likely, but the antipication of possible expensive and/or time-consuming 'hardward upgrade' that may be needed to continue listening to satillite radio. So with that, I receive this e-mail today from XM that reads:
Dear XM Subscriber,
The FCC has notified XM that some of our older receiver models (generally, those purchased before August, 2006) may not operate in the manner required by the FCC and may cause interference to nearby FM radio users depending on how the XM radio is installed or used.
The receiver models include the Roady2®, SKYFi2®, MyFi®, Airware®, Tao, RoadyXT®, Xpress™, Sportscaster, XR9-XCX9, Jensen JXR9, inno®, Helix™, and Nexus®. Please note this notice does not apply to you if your new car came installed with an XM receiver.
If you do have one or more of the receivers mentioned above and use it with the wireless FM option or you have had the receiver professionally installed, then we have several options available at no cost to you to alleviate this possible interference. Please visit our website at www.xmradio.com/fmmodinfo or call us toll-free at 866-410-0096 to choose one of the following three options:
Option A: We will send you ferrite beads to attach to your XM antenna and power adaptor cables. (Ferrite beads are typically placed on the end of data cables to reduce interference.)
Option B: We will send you a replacement cassette adapter to use with your XM radio. Only choose this option if your car radio has a cassette player.
Option C: If your car does not have a cassette player, we will provide you with ferrite beads and an installation kit, with hardware, to use in connection with a professional installation of your radio along with a coupon redeemable at no charge for professional installation.
Please visit the following website, www.xmradio.com/fmmodinfo for more information and to select your option. If you do not have access to the Internet, you may call 866-410-0096 for information on how to alleviate this possible interference. To help expedite your order, please have your 8-digit Radio ID (found on Channel 0 of your XM radio) and your FCC ID (found on the back, the bottom, or under the battery of your XM radio), available when you start this process.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Best Regards, XM Management
Note - If you are using your XM radio's FM modulator to send the XM signal to a home or car stereo, your radio will work best if you use an unused FM frequency. Go to www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant to find the best FM frequencies to use in your area.
When I go to the website, I get this:
The receiver models affected include the Roady2®, SKYFi2®, MyFi®, Airware®, Tao, RoadyXT®, Xpress™, Sportscaster, XR9-XCX9, Jensen JXR9, inno®, Helix™, and Nexus®.
In order to assist you in this process you will need your radio ID (found on Channel 0 of your XM radio) and your FCC ID (found on the back, the bottom, or under the battery of your XM radio) to begin the process.
I have found the radio ID but struggling to find the FCC ID (the time-consuming part has begun).
Why is it when companies merge, the consumer seldom benefits? I have e-mails out to friends asking me to help locate this number. But once I have the numbers and new equipment to install, I will need to find, in my little 1.5 horse town, a professional installer who can do these 'upgrades'.
This is why people do not like change. It adds more to their already busy lives and you feel like an idiot when you can't do what is required without some assistance.
Ugg...
PS I received an answer to one of my 'help me' emails and my friend said to blow the XM letter off --- that XM is just trying to get me to upgrade to a new system... sigh
Former Democratic US presidential hopeful John Edwards has admitted that he had an extra-marital affair and that he lied about it during his campaign.
Mr Edwards, whose wife has terminal cancer, said the affair in 2006 was with a film-maker whose company made documentaries for his campaign.
He denied fathering Rielle Hunter's child, born in February, but said he was willing to take a paternity test.
...
The admission followed reports of the sex scandal in the National Enquirer newspaper, which Mr Edwards had previously dismissed as "tabloid trash".
In a statement released following his television appearance, Mr Edwards said he had made "a serious error in judgment".
"I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic," Mr Edwards said, trying to explain his behaviour.
...
Elizabeth Edwards later released her own statement, in which she confirmed that her husband had told her of the affair and that she had hoped it would remain private.
She described the affair as "a terrible mistake", and said that coming to terms with it had been "a long and painful process".
But she added that the healing process was "oddly made somewhat easier" when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2007.
Mrs Edwards said she was proud of her husband despite his shame, and she asked that her family's privacy be respected.
"Now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue," she said.
Rielle Hunter's daughter was born in February this year, and no father's name was given on the birth certificate.
Mr Edwards told ABC that his affair had ended too soon for him to have been the father.
Correspondents say the revelations could affect John Edwards' chances of receiving a post in government if Democrat Barack Obama wins the presidency in November.
Wow... cheat on the wife when she is dying of cancer. Couldn't he find another way to cope? This kind of behavior shouldn't, sadly, surprise anyone anymore.
A Clayton County, Georgia family who got a new home is facing foreclosure. An army of volunteers, including Lake City mayor Willie Oswat, swarmed a the neighborhood to build a new home for a deserving family on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in 2005.
A foreclosure notice appeared last Friday, a $450,000 second mortgage they took out less than 15 months ago was in default. ...
Beazer Homes of Atlanta was the main sponsor.
"Beazer gave them $100,000 cash, paid their mortgage off and they still can't make it," said Oswalt. ...
"What's going to happen is instead of keep paying my mortgage, I'm going to take my money and not pay my mortgage because I'm being harassed," said Patricia Harper, home owner. ...
X-Files Soundtrack - UNKLE
Current mood: rockin
Category: Music
I placed this video on my profile yesterday, but I wanted to blog about it today because I am just blown by the lyrics. I do now know if UNKLE was hired to write this specific song for the X-Files movie but the lyrics are dead on.
As the video runs, the lyrics play across the screen. Listen to it a couple of times. It is fabulous! Think of the Mulder/Scully relationship told from Mudler's point-of-view and it really hits home.
When you think of comedy, you tend to think of people like Kelsey Grammar and Nathan Lane. When I saw the trailer to Swing Vote with its all-star cast, I thought, 'Deb, this has to be funny.'
You know what they forgot to do? Bring the funny.
It has its moments. But that is it - just a few moments of laughter here and there. Mostly, it is a carefree film wrapped in serious topics.
The most dominating topic is alcoholism and the slow destruction of family. Madeline Carroll who plays Kevin Costner's (Bud Johnson) daughter Molly Johnson and is probably the second best actor in the movie (after Costner). When she cries over the repeated disappointments of her father's juvenile, selfish drunken behavior, you just want to rescue her from her bum, unemployed father.
Although the movie tries to make light of Bud Johnson's drinking problem, it was not all that funny and in fact, to me, it was sad. The secret-service agent becomes a better father to Molly than Bud. Fortunately, as Swing Vote moves along, Kevin Costner does give a funny and convincing performance of being a "less than average" person who is just doing the best he can with raising a daughter (who is ten times smart than he is).
The next relevant message of the film is politics. Again, the point of the movie is to make light of all these earnest topics but since we have been experiencing the real-deal campaign for the last - I don't know - three years, the deceitful actions of both politicians are front and center.
How much do you want to win is determined by how much you are willing to sell your soul to the devil. That is, what are you willing to say to the public to get there vote. These two candidates (Grammar and Hopper) are willing to say anything it appears. Although they both question their behavior along the way and Grammar even makes a course correction. I doubt that this politicing meanders far from the truth.
Through all of the sadness of a little girl's disappointment of her parents - and adults in general and the near-consequences of drinking, Swing Vote does deliver an amazingly congenial performances from both Costner and Carroll and the last 15-20 minutes of the movie is worth the price of admission.
It was a surprising film with an even better ending. Besides, there are a hundred cameo appearances throughout the movie such as Willie Nelson and Richard Petty. So I recommend seeing it just for those reasons.
After discussing X-Files with a few "experts" in the field, I decided to spend the money and take a second look at X-Files: I Want to Believe. Initially, my expectations may have been set too high (I was a little excited) for a standard "X-Files" type plot. This time my attention was more focused on the Mulder/Scully relationship and what Chris Carter was trying to convey in this movie. Having done this, I found it a much more enjoyable flick.
I still struggled with seeing snow on the silver screen in the dead of summer.
I continue to stand behind my previous post that stated the top ten things that are wrong with the flick. However, today, I viewed the movie through a wider lens that covered religion, life choices, the growth of our beloved ex-FBI agents as both individuals and as a couple as the underpinning to the entire movie that C Carter wanted the true believer to walk away with.
I think, in retrospect, that if the audience throws out the actual "X-File" story and just looks at the case as a prime opportunity for Mulder to come out of hiding and the "B" story of Scully's young patient dying as a reason to pull her away from Mulder and reflect on her own life, then the picture has much more meaning and offers a little more than an extended TV episode. This movie was definitely intended for the "shippers" and now that the X-Philes fans have a real, passionate kiss to play over and over again on YouTube, it is at least one of many loose strings that has been tied.
BTW: This promotional shot was never in the movie. Never did Mulder and Scully look at a computer together. Only Scully used it for research and not in that shirt. She either wore a lab coat and/or scrubs while at the hospital.
I also plan to purchase the DVD. There were frames that I wanted to freeze to look at the background detail - like Mulder's home office. I also need to check on something that I think I saw. I believe that one of little girls who played Mulder's sister (the one with no language who as an eight year-old clone on a plantation with a massive indoor beehive) is all grown-up and walking past him at the FBI office as he was waiting, with Scully, to be invited in. I definitely did see Chris Carter in the hallway of the hospital holding a white urn as Scully walked to the door of her office to unlock it.
Sidebar: At the theater this afternoon, only one other family was there. At the end, when the credits began, I heard the father say, "You've got to be kidding me?!" I almost replied that he needs to see it again with more of an open mind, but I did not think he or his family would have taken that advice from the only other person in a dark theater. Too bad they left before the Easter Egg :)
The end of the movie/thriller/X-File is a bit of a let down when you first see it - and the Russian bad guy was going to put his "husband's" head on a woman's body because, as Mulder pointed out later, the injured Russian was dying of lung cancer. But why would a gay man put his partner's head on a woman's body?
Anyway...
I also have seen Wall*E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Both good popcorn flicks for the family or date night or whatever. I waited a while to see Wall*E because I wanted as few as kids around as possible and I got my wish. There was just two older women who left half-way through the movie! Who leaves during Wall*E? That is like leaving during E.T. I guess they did not like it when the machines got rough with the passengers. Weird.
Although Brandon's new Mummy movie has not been getting great reviews, I still want to see it. (If you want to see what, I think, is the best role the Brandon Fraser ever played, check out School Ties). The critics did give Mummy an 'A' for special effects in the film so there is that. I think it will be better than the last Indiana Jones release.
Maybe Harrison Ford and David Duchovny should have swapped scripts.
"A few days before Congress passed its Housing Bill, Carlene Balderrama of Taunton MA found her own solution to the housing crisis. Just a little over two hours in advance of the time her mortgage company, PHH Mortgage Corporation -- may its name live in infamy -- was to auction off her home, Balderrama killed herself with her husband's rifle.
This is not the kind of response to hard times that James Grant had in mind when he wrote his July 19 Wall Street Journal essay entitled "Why No Outrage?" "One might infer from the lack of popular anger," the famed Wall Street contrarian wrote, "that the credit crisis was God's fault rather than the doing of the bankers and the rating agencies and the government's snoozing watchdogs." For contrast, he cites the spirited response to the depression of the 1890s, when lawyer/agitator Mary Lease stirred crowds with the message that "We want the accursed foreclosure system wiped out .... We will stand by our homes and stay by our firesides by force if necessary"
America is in terrible trouble. Not from gas and food prices increasing. Not from the car companies switching factory stock from big SUVs to tiny hybrids. Not even from lead found in China-made toys, which is 98% of the toys sold in the U.S.
Nope. America is in peril due to natural and unnatural disasters that seem to be beyond its control - or are they?
America is experiencing fires in the west, drought in the south, flooding in the mid-west and a busy hurricane seasons before the 'official' season. Rather you want to chalk this up to Global Warming or not, it is happening and it is bankrupting America - and we do absolutely nothing to break the chain.
Every year, people build in places that we *know* will be flooded, blown down with hurricane-force winds, set on fire by nature or humans, or fall off a cliff from erosion and/or earthquakes. Every year, the governors of those states claim "state of emergency - a disaster areas" so to get Federal Relief (money). And every time, the president, who ever he is, swoops in with tights and a cape and says here my poor follow Americans, unless you live in the 9th ward, I have lots of free money for you to build again. Please par take.
Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and over again hoping for a different result.
I think that confusion may be that some people are under the illusion that the Federal Government has all the money that they can print for free. Whenever there is a problem, Mommy and Daddy government will be there to wipe your bottom and so far that has proven true, unless you are black swimming with the alligators.
The reality is that the Feds only have enough money that it can raise through taxes or, under the Bush Financial Policy, go into major debt to, let's say, China to fund the billion dollars it takes each year to clean up the messes.
What happen to home-owner's insurance?
Why do we, the People, allow the same coastal and flood-plains folks to build in the same spot after every disaster with tax-payers money? Why do million-dollar Florida mansions on the beach get money from the New York apartment-dwelling slob? Why is the guy in north Texas paying for the hurricane "victims" of south Texas?
These people aren't victims. They know the risks of living where they have chosen to live. Yet the live there anyway because they know that Mommy and Daddy will be 'standing by' if any happens.
While you ponder that let's move onto unnatural disasters that are destroying this country as we type.
Mortgage Crisis
This is another case where I believe very few victims exist but a whole lot of greedy, malicious people have found their breeding ground.
How are you a victim if you knowingly fill out the loan application with an inflated income and/or reduced debt? Don't give me this ' the loaner said it would be ok- they are the experts - the professionals - he said to do it.'
That is a child's answer.
How are you a victim when you know that the first year or two you are only paying interest on the loan and that the ARM will reset with a higher payment?
You are not. You are greedy and maybe a little stupid but not a victim.
How are you a victim when a family of four making less than $30K a year knowingly buys a $300K (at least) house and then once in immediately starts falling behind on the payments (but yea, everyone in the family has a cell phone and Ipod.) ?
You are not a victim. You are ADD and brought up believing that the world owes you something. The world and the tax-payers of America don't owe you shit. But here we have Congress and Pres Bush, all fitted with new tights, grabbing the nearest microphone to announce the signing of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008
Again, where is this money coming from?
The Feds don't have make money - they take it. The take it from the tax-payers and borrow it from China and other places (that we will not get into right now).
The American budget deficit is projected to reach $482bn next year, an all-time record and DOES NOT reflect about $80bn in Iraq war costs.
When does it end? When does this country start holding people accountable for their actions?
I am not talking about the business slime that infects every corner of the markets today, both lenders and flip-investors. I am talking about the ADD, I want it know people. I am talking about those who can wait and save because they were never taught either to wait or to save and purchase a house when they can afford it.
Did you purchase your first 3000 sq ft house at the age of 25?
Since when was it a financially-sound idea to use your house as an ATM?
Why is America in the negative when looking at personal savings accounts?
Because the last two generations do not have clue how to manage their finances:
So, we have millions of people who have done one or both and can't make their monthly payments (and this would have happened with or without oil hitting a $140 a barrel) and they need rescuing.
There are estimates that 30-40% of parents are bailing their kids out of everything from credit card debt to student loans. They are dipping into their own retirement to help out their kids. So what happens when they retire? Some reciprocity from the kiddies?
The experts say that it is highly unlikely because, again, the kids have not learned how to manage their money and a parent bail out just leads to more needed bail outs.
And when people do not have parents or anyone to bail them out, they resort to killing themselves? How many fatalities will the mortgage debacle ultimate have on its greedy, bloody hands?
"Gen Xers also face this harsh reality: The standard of living that most of them have so far managed to achieve falls short of their own parents' standard at the same age. The median income for men now in their 30s, when adjusted for inflation, is 12% lower than what their dads earned three decades earlier, a report by the Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, concluded."
The Banks
Not only do the home-owners need saving but so do the banks - big ones! Mommy and Daddy government has to bail out - well - everyone it appears.
Again, where is the money coming from? (Oh yea, the money press)
This is where you go from angry to frightened. Do you really get how scary it is when major financial institutions start to fail?
Do you know how to plant a garden?
Fanny and Freddie say that they don't need help (saving) but IndyBank sure does.
Does yours??
What are we to do? The experts say don't panic. They say don't take your money out of the bank and put it in the mattress - that would not be a smart think to do. I wonder where they money is...
Today's Headlines: "The country didn't get the energetic rebound in economic growth hoped for from the government's tax rebates in the second quarter, and the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007, raising new recession fears."
satisfied
awake
grumpy
bored
surprised
rockin
annoyed
