The Lackluster Lantern...

This weekend, we finally got around to watching last summer's least-liked super-hero movie, "The Green Lantern".  I was, in a word, unimpressed.  I'm not a big Ryan Reynolds fan.  I think he was cute in that movie he was in with Sandra Bullock where she was his boss and they faked an engagement; comedy ensued... but this time, he wasn't cute, he wasn't really all that likeable, and between the dull dialogue, the slow pacing, the obvious CGI, and the easy comparisons to superior films, it was just a big disappointment.

I'm not a big comic book fan, but I love a good super-hero movie, and, even though I had heard from everyone that it was pretty lame, I thought we should give it a fair chance.  Going in with low expectations often helps a movie seem better than it was.  No good here.  Nothing could have saved it.  The Green Lantern story is decent, I can see the appeal of the character, and I totally understand the coolness factor of the Lanterns' power-- how cool to be able to create anything your mind can come up with-- but it didn't translate well to the big screen.

Now on to "Captain America"...

My friend gave me the Liebster Award!

I will pass it on to the blogs listed below.  These are the rules:
The Liebster Award is one given to highlight up and coming blogs. These blogs usually have less than 200 followers. It does come with a few rules: 

1. Copy and paste the award onto your blog.
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blog that gave you the award.
3. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving them a comment.
4. Hope that your followers spread the love to other bloggers. 


Here are my picks:
http://lauradbastian.blogspot.com/
http://dancesdishesanddreams.blogspot.com/
http://craftingintherain.blogspot.com/ (this blog has over 200 followers, but it is such a great blog, I thought she deserved to be noticed)


I don't follow very many blogs, I simply don't have time to read them.  My favorite blogs besides these 3 are well over 200 followers, so they don't really qualify. 


Check out my friends' blogs, though.  You'll be glad you stopped by. 

A Friday Night Flick

Working full time makes it very difficult to find time to blog.  SO this will be short, because it's the end of my work week and I'm exhausted and tomorrow is another busy day.  My sons, husband and I watched "The Adjustment Bureau" tonight, which features my imaginary boyfriend, Matt Damon, as a politician whose life is being controlled by the titular Bureau, who inexplicably doesn't want him to be with the girl he loves (Emily Blunt), so he runs around a lot and looks stressed out or sad a lot, and keeps breaking her heart by just disappearing from her life (except I'm fairly sure she saw him on TV, because he's running for Senate... um... not sure why she didn't just go to HIM and confront him...) and she gets engaged twice to another man (some guy named Adrian, I think), then twice ditches said fiance, poor fella.

It's pretty good, somewhat predictable, but refreshingly creative and energetic. It's no Bourne movie, and the story seemed a bit... flat, but it was a decent free library dvd.  I liked the humor, Damon had a lot of cute, flirtatiously funny lines.  I liked Harry an angel (?) who ends up helping them, he was well played by Anthony Mackie.  He's good-looking and seemed to be the only Bureau member with a conscience or brain.

This movie is advertised to be a thriller, and I suppose it is, though only just barely.  They cuss a handful of times, including the obligatory "you-can't-stop-us" f-bomb, which Hollywood seems to think belongs in any movie not PG, but which I could have done without.  Who needs it?  And the little sprinkling of "sexual content" was very short-- short enough to wonder why they even put it in.  It wasn't graphic, but sexy enough to make my two and a half teenage sons uncomfortable.  And me, sitting next to them, as well! We did the "cover your eyes!" game that we have to play with so many movies.  Ugh.

Thanks to IMDB for the details such as actors' names, and to the world wide web for the photo. Google's image search is a wonderful thing.

And we're back.

I finally finished watching all 6 seasons of "Lost" today.  The final episode, which generated fan complaints and dissatisfaction, was actually lovely.  I enjoyed it, in spite of the tears I shed while watching.  Of course, there are multiple questions in the so-called mythology of the series that were left unanswered, which was mildly frustrating.  There were things I didn't understand that never got

Granted, I didn't dedicate 6 years of viewing to the show, like fans who watched it during its run did, and maybe that contributed to the feeling that I'm just glad to be finished with it, rather than feeling disappointed that the end didn't explain everything.

I do think the show didn't really need 6 seasons to tell its story.  I think 4 or 5 would have been sufficient...

I did find myself very attached to these characters, Desmond, Charlie, Hurley and Sawyer in particular. Good stuff...

I don't want to say too much because I know that future fans would probably not appreciate me spoiling any of the fun, and there are a lot of mysteries and secrets to enjoy. If you haven't watched it, give it a look!  It's on Netflix streaming, or your local library might have the DVDs for your enjoyment.  Just be careful, because if you like it as well as I did, you'll have a hard time doing much else besides watching TV.

Now it's time to catch up on my TV shows, movies and (especially) books!!

A Season Late and an Admission Price Short

I'm finally, slowly, catching up on the summer moviest that I missed out on during the actual summer.  The list I wanted to see included a handful of comic-book-ish movies, such as "Green Lantern" (haven't seen it yet), "Thor" (check out my sort-of review, HERE), "Cowboys and Aliens" (yes, I know it's based on a Graphic novel which is not the same thing as a comic book... see my review, HERE), "Captain America" (really looking forward to seeing it), and "X-Men First Class", which I watched with my husband and 3 1/2 teenage boys.

Here's what I thought:
I have a longstanding Hollywood crush on James McAvoy, so I was really looking forward to his screen presence, his voice, his accent (oh, that accent...) and his interpretation of the character of Charles Xavier. I think he was as good as ever-- bringing charm and sweetness (but not too sweet) to Xavier and intelligently spouting out sciencey lines with ease.  He was great; I wanted to see more of him.  My only distraction (besides those blue eyes) was that every time he put his fingers on his temple to read someone's mind, I was reminded of Shaun Spencer (played by James Roday) of Psych.  So that pulled me out of the movie. I am curious whether Xavier does that with his fingers in the comic book?? Look at the pictures if you don't believe me...

 

 Actually, Mcavoy used one hand through the movie, as does Roday (most of the time), but I couldn't find photos of them both doing that, so just enjoy the comparison and don't worry about that detail, please.

Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr), the other main leading character, was played by Michael Fassbender, who was good.  He was believable and effective, and I liked his relationship with Xavier.  His power to move, manipulate and use metals magnetically was excellent.  Modern special effects are magic!

Then there was Kevin Bacon!  When I was a teenager, Footloose hadn't been out all that long, (it came out in 1984, when I was 12), and Kevin Bacon was still a cute, young adult whose star was rising fast.  I have always liked him, and I have very much enjoyed his often humorous appearances in movies-- in particular his cab-stealing cameo in "Planes Trains and Automobiles" with Steve Martin.  He played a rather evil man in "X-Men First Class", Sebastian Shaw, whose manipulation and torture of a young Erik create a world of anger and hatred, resentment and unhappiness for Erik.  Bacon's performance was good, his character was consistent.  I think I prefer him being subtly funny to him being evil, though...

I liked getting to know the X-Men a little bit, the young mutants with their various abilities were interesting, and some of them went through some good character growth and maturing; others seemed there just to fill the room, but it was fine.  I loved Hugh Jackman's little cameo, but I could have done without the f-bomb he dropped.  I also cannot recommend this movie unequivocally, because of the repeated scenes of women in lingerie and one in a bed who is obviously not wearing anything at all.  I want movies I can watch with teenage boys and NOT get uncomfortable!! As my Step-Mother pointed out recently, the problem with sexuality and immodesty in movies is that it's actually real people not wearing clothes, acting these things out, as opposed to violence and explosions, which are not real.  Sexual content in films is not necessary, and it doesn't make a movie any higher quality.  In fact, I think it denigrates women and makes me NOT want to purchase copies of those films.   But I digress.

Overall, "X-Men First Class" was a fun movie, with some humor, some heart, a little revenge and science, and I liked it.  I won't be buying it, however.  Sadly...