Yes, this is my opinion, and stop right now if you plan to be offended.

I will try not to spoil this movie for those who have not seen it, I just want to say a few things.  This summer has by far been one of the best summers I can remember in the past few years for Barrie and I where seeing movies is concerned.  We have seen “Iron Man”, “Get Smart” “Hancock” and last night we saw “The Dark Knight.”

I want to say right now to the people saying things like “It’s a dark movie”…shut up.  Are you trying to tell me that you are so stupid that you could not tell that from the previews?  Maybe the title was not enough to clue you in either…” sheesh.  I also want to tell the people that are saying “Heath Ledger deserves and Oscar” and “No wonder the man committed suicide” and “Heath Ledger was the most awesome actor ever” to also shut up.  You say stuff like that and you make yourself look like a sheep, following the herd.

I am not a big Heath Ledger fan.  He frankly fits in a category I have of alot of other anonymous male actors that are inter-changable and pretty unremarkable.  Up until this movie he had never done anything that I would have considered great acting.  He got alot of acclaim for “Brokeback Mountain” but any actor that was not gay that starred in that movie would have gotten the same.  He got kudos for the movie subject, not his acting.  I saw “Brokeback Mountain” and left the theater shrugging my shoulders going “What is the big deal?”  His portrayal of the joker is mesmerizing.  It is so menacing that you love/hate to see him coming.  But you know what?  I saw that much when they where showing clips of it right after his death.  I saw that when they started saturating the airwaves with “Batman” trailers.  People are making more  out of it this than it should be.  The man gave a great performance, than died of an accidental overdose.  It could have had something to do with the movie or not;  but that is no reason to bring up his death whenever you talk about the movie or inflate his performance to mythical proportions.  I have to wonder if he can see all this is he insulted?  “Are you people saying that the only reason I could act this part so well is because I planned on dying?”  I will say that after seeing this movie, I would have liked to have seen his next project.  Was it the writing that made this character so great or the acting?  Had Heath Ledger finally hit his acting stride?  We will never know.  If you have to have a last acting role, this was a great one to have.  Leave them wanting more.

The movie as a whole was just ok.  Yes, it has the explosions, yes it was loud, yes, it has big budget special effects….but what else does it have?  It has cliches(Barrie said to me “it is so lucky that the people of Gotham drive in that zig zag pattern so Batman can always weave in and out of traffic if he needs to and I myself thought “Gotham must be full of tunnels and bridges because just about every chase/action scene took place in one, on one or under one to amp the excitement).    It has a ok story.  It has boring characters(I think they actually found a more bland Actress than Katie Holmes to play Rachel).  It has really bad pacing, and a somewhat confusing plot.  It has veteran actors like Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine and it still managed to be just ok.  It could have been better. I kind of hate to see this installment of “The Dark Knight” series.  I wanted it to be more.  I enjoyed “Hancock” more than this movie.
I will say that I am not the biggest fan of the first movie “Batman Begins.”  I had to see it 4 times before I finally decided that I liked it.  Maybe this one will be the same.  People, put aside your “Awww, he died” feelings and watch the movie, then make your comments.

Saturday was a LONG day.  Doctor Who aired in the UK at 1840 their time.  It was a LONG wait until  I could finally get it secured here in the US and Barrie and I sat down to watch it around 1030pm.  Between my waking up and realizing it was Who day and the actual second that we could finally watch the last episode “Journey’s End” we watched alot of other Who stuff.  We re-watched the season of 12 episodes and the Confidentials.  How was the last episode of Who?  Overall it was ok.  With the cliff hanger of last week…..almost nothing could have lived up to that.  But the episode was …….ok.  It was sad of course because it was the end.  Next year there are 4 mini-movies; no more weekly series.  There was one scene that moved me to tears; I felt it was so beautiful.  One character’s fate was tragic, which I didn’t like, and there were things that happened that were good and bad; some stuff that I didn’t really understand.  I felt the pace was wrong…..but overall  it could have been worse (AKA the TNG finale or the Angel finale).  So with the end always comes depression.  I have been moping around trying to decide how I feel.  UGH I hate endings!  Why can’t things that I like go on forever?????

As an aside on the 4th we went to the movies.  We saw “Get Smart”.  If Barrie had had his way we would have seen “Hancock”.  I do want to see it, but I had wanted to see “Get Smart” first so I put my foot down.  I’m glad I did because while it will not be nominated for an Oscar, it was a fun movie.  I am not a “Get Smart” nut.  I might stop and watch a few minutes if I am surfing and I see it on TV; but it is not like I own the DVD’s or could even name the actors who starred in the orginal.  But everytime I saw the trailer, I would laugh…and I decided that I needed to watch it.  I think I am the only person in the US who had never seen a Steve Carell Movie or TV show.  While he did Max’s signature lines pretty good, I was not overall that impressed with him in general.  But that is the way you were supposed to feel about Maxwell Smart, so maybe he did a ace job… The fun thing was after I got home, I spent a hour surfing the web reading up on the orginal series and the actors.  I learned alot, the saddest was that Don Adams is dead.  I guess that is why he did not do a cameo in the movie.  It made me sad to realize that.  Like I said, I am not a huge Get Smart fan, but it was a childhood thing and it was sad to see that he was gone.  What I found weird is that Barrie has never seen the series; but he knew alot about it from just pop culture (the doors and walking to the phone booth.  Shoe Phone, catch phrases “Missed it by that much”  and “Would you believe…”.  I find it interesting when there is something that is HUGE in my childhood and Barrie has no idea.  I also found it interesting that having never seen the show, because of pop culture he still knew alot about it.  Pop Culture is a powerful thing.

I was never a huge fan of the show.  I don’t owe the DVD’s and I certainly am not one of the millions of people that worship Manolo Blahniks  and haute couture.   As a matter of fact, I could not be further away from their life style if I tried.  I live in a small town, I have no real interest in shoes (I just need them to protect my feet and be comfortable) and being a fat  girl all my life, well haute couture is not a possibility for fat girls, not that I think I would like it if I were thin.  I love spending my free time in blue jeans and tank tops, not silk and satin.  So how did I find myself going to see “Sex and the City” today?  I enjoyed the show because it showed me stuff I had never see before, and it gave me experiences I would never have.  My girl friends all live far away, and even if we lived close, we are not the type of girls to go get Cosmopolitans at a local bar and talk about our sex lives.  As a matter of fact, I don’t have one girl friend that I “talk the frank sex talk” to. I always tuned in to see the Sex and the City girls because they had stuff I didn’t,  And they lived a life that seemed full of excitement and jubilance, and also because they inhabited a world of insecurity and pain.  I might not be living in a Brownstone in NY, but I certainly could identify with the broken heart and life’s twists and turns.  It was very straight forward TV for women, by women.  It fascinated me because it was so unlike what I have.  I loved listening to Samantha’s sexcapades, Charlotte’s dreams of the perfect life, Miranda’s cynicism and Carrie’s constant quest for happiness and new shoes.  I wanted to see the movie today because I enjoyed being with the four of them and seeing  what was going on in their lives.  I was not disappointed.  I throughly enjoyed the 2 hours I had catching up with my old friends today, and even though I did not agree with some of the choices made by the characters, I can say that the choices were true to their  characters.  I don’t think that kind of life would be good for me, but I enjoy watching others living the high life.

Barrie was dying to see “Cloverfield”. When it was out in the theaters, I managed to keep avoiding going to see it, to late,  hungry, sleepy, can’t get ready that fast.  I even told him to go see it by himself, but he wouldn’t.  Friday night I ran out of excuses and had to watch it with him.  At least it was a Netflix rental, and we didn’t do the whole movie experience for that piece of crap.  He really made me laugh because when to was over, he said, “I’m a little disappointed.”  I wanted to do a Jack O’neil  and  yell “YOU THINK?  A movie full of nobodies, filmed with a camcorder, and you never fucking understand anything about the monster or where it came from?  I new this was a stinker when it was being advertised.  “Monster Movie’s equivalent of “The Blair Witch.”  Crap.  It is a shame that the generations after us think that entertainment is crap filmed with a camcorder to give it that “realistic” look.  If I wanted realistic, I would go out and run in the freaking  woods at night by myself, not sit in a theater and watch someone else do it.  Crap camcorder films and reality TV….what happened to sets and scripts and special effects and actors and a FULL story?

I do not think anyone anywhere is as big of a Will Smith fan as my husband. He often says if he every becomes famous he wants Will Smith to play him in the movie. I think he fancies himself as the white version of Will Smith…maybe saying he thinks he is Will Smith-like sounds better. Any movie with Will Smith we almost always go see. Friday we went to see “I am Legend” . It was wonderful. Will Smith shares most of the movie with a dog for about the first hour. He carries most of the movie and you don’t get bored. He is just a effortless actor. I don’t want to to say a word about this movie, don’t want to give a bit of it away. Go see it!

I have been dreading writing this review. Because I have an opinion that is WAY different than everyone else I know that has seen it. If you have not seen the movie yet and you don’t want spoilers….don’t read any more until you have seen it.

I really didn’t like the movie. “HPOOP” Now to be fair, 5 is my LEAST enjoyed book. So how can I really be expected to like the movie. Harry whines and grumps his way through the whole book, and I just want to slap him. So I was a bit prejudiced already going in. From the start, The movie just went in the wrong direction. Where the others were rich in color and dialog, this one was bleak and dry. And it lacked HUMOR. I know that 5 is not a humor filled book, but they stuff that is in the book they could have USED!!!!!!! I didn’t like Harry or Ron’s hair cuts, I felt that all the characters looked older…and not in a good way. Like in a make-up could have been better way. I didn’t like how they got rid of the Dursleys, or how the OOTP showed up and whisked him away to the the headquarters. Barrie, a non reader said, “Why did that woman make such a big deal about Mad-Eye calling her Nymphadora, then they don’t flesh that out in the movie at all?” Yeah, what happened to Tonks? I didn’t like how they didn’t talk about the house much, and why show Kretcher if you are not going to have him be the one who betrays Sirrius? I hated how Luna was portrayed, the girl just spoke in a whispy voice and that was all. Why add scenes that were not in the book? There were plenty of stuff they could have put back in the movie instead of having Luna explain about the thestrals, have the entire DA writing lines with Umbridge’s pens, and Why did Cho have to be the one to betray the DA? And who’s wise idea was it to leave out McGonagall’s Confrontation with Umbridge over being monitored AND over Harry’s career counseling? THOSE WERE AWESOME SCENES in the book and would have transferred well to the screen. Instead we have a scene where McGonagall BACKS DOWN TO Umbridge!!! What kine of CRAP is that? McGonagall was always careful around Umbridge, she showed her a respect, like you would respect a black widow, but she NEVER BACKED DOWN! And what happened to Fred and George’s grand exit? It was ok, but it could have been more. They caused more disruptions in the book, leave off the token gesture of Kretcher and put more of the Weasley twins in I say!!!!! What about the bit of everyone freaking out about flying on Thestrals they can’t see? No Quidditch so No “WEASLEY IS OUR KING!” They left out St Mungo’s when Mr. Weasley was attacked, so no Lockhart, and no meeting Neville’s parents. And the bit about the Muggle medicine? That was a short bit that would have been hilarious! And the bit with Hermione bewitching the coins to show the meeting times? And the bit with Hermione hexing the paper and the girl with the zits spelling out snitch or snoop or whatever it was????

What did I like? I loved Bellatrix. Helen Bonham Carter was a GREAT casting choice. I LOVED her cackle…sent chills down my spine. I liked Umbridge’s office and all those cat’s on the plates. I loved how it was a meow chorus whenever you went in there. I thought Umbridge was well done. I liked how the moving portraits were back. And I think they did a ok job on showing Ginny the super witch. Even Barrie caught it. Not much huh?

Come on people. This is not rocket schence. I feel like they are trying to make Harry Potter be all dramatic and sinister. Yes, it is dark, but there is also fun in these books. I feel like the fun has been forgotten. This movie ranks exactly where this book ranks for me, the bottom of the pile. MY all time favorite chapter JK has ever written is the first chapter of Book 6. I love the idea of the Ministry of Magic talking with the Muggle Prime Minister. I think it is so funny…. and they gave it a foot note at the end of this movie. If they do not start out the next movie with that chapter…I will be HIGHLY upset. Get ready to be upset right???

Alright, I went and saw this today with Barrie, and I was surprised that I was not the only girl in the theater.  “Transformers” is not a movie for girls at all.  And I have to say, I was glad they the producers didn’t try to “Chick it up.”  If you are going to be a movie about robots transforming into cars, be a movie about robots transforming into cars and don’t try and appeal to women by adding a female robot or a love story.  “Transformers” was a move about guns and cars and robots and trucks and special effects.  There was a bit of a story there, and it made it watchable.  Not the worst movie I have ever seen.  Truth be told, I found the plot a little hard to follow, maybe becaues they used all these transformer terms that people who watched the cartoons knew, and it was full of “boyisms”.  Stuff boys just know (like how many calibers a certain gun has or what all that stuff is clipped on a soldiers belt).  It would be like going to watch a sci-fi movoe with NO reference as to what the heck they are taling about.  Of course “Transformers” is not going to win any Oscars for screen writing or acting so really why worry about it.   I would put it in the same catagory as “Ghost Rider”.  It was ok when I was in there, totally forgetable once we left, and I didn’t resent spending cash on it.

Am I difficult to please?  OK, I know that was a loaded question…. but I really felt like I needed to ask that one. Saw Pirates today. We needed something to help break up our Disney depression and we both have been feeling physically ill, so we thought we would go out and see a movie.

SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVEN”T SEEN IT

I was so disappointed. I felt that the story was kinda lame. I also felt like it was way to wordy. Sometimes when the actors were saying their lines, I couldn’t even understand them… more to do with accents and acting than editing or sound mixing. When did Elizabeth Swann become this fearless strong woman pirate and captain of a ship…..and King of the Pirates??? I HATED that they killed Will and made him the captain of the Flying Dutchman. But I will say, Orlando Bloom as the Dread Pirate Will(think Princess Bride…didn’t he sorta look like Inyago Montoya)…..very sexy. That particular horrible plot device was worth it just to see him all decked out in black at the end :) I hated how they changed his character to this scheming jerk, willing to betray his friends. Captain Jack and his multilple selves….how boring and drool. WHY did they feel the need to kill Norrington? Kill him after turning him into a drunk I mean. Why do that to good character? The Goddess Calypso, a 10 foot tall woman??? I would have preferred they turn the goddess into a beam of light…just as cliched but it would have looked better. And Will’s dad survives for at least 10 years on the Dutchman, but in the 3 weeks or so Will is gone after promising to free him he turns into a loser nutter and becomes part of the ship??? WTF? I guess I wouldn’t have been a critical if we hadn’t watched 1 and 2 the night before. Pirates of the Caribbean is just such a great movie. It is funny romantic, silly, just everything a summer movie should be. 2 was a little less fun, but 3 was just awful in my opinion. It did however send me to the internet to search for pic of Orlando as the Dread Pirate Will and I found out that Pirates has shippers….. as in relation-shippers. They call them selves Sparrabeth’s and Willibeth’s……. just when I think the world can get no weirder…..

So since I hated Spiderman 3 and now Pirates 3 sucked a big one I was wondering if it was me that was hard to please and expecting to much, or is Hollywood just turning out crap? All I ask is for a entertaining movie. And if you commit to doing a 2nd or 3rd movie…..don’t change the characters…we liked then the way they were in the first movie or we wouldn’t have gone to see it in droves allowing you to make a 2nd or 3rd movie. In my mind, Pirates will end with one, where Jack is sailing off on the Pearl, and Will and Elizabeth are together and very much in love…… sucker for the happy ending I am that.

Well, seeing a movie a week was really setting the bar high for failure right?  So a friend told me I should have shot for a movie a month.  That has become the unofficial goal.  So today, we went to see Spiderman 3.  A miracle really since Barrie is in teh throws of his own addicition.  Funny how me like in a musical is just so wrong and girly, while his addiciton to making robots and playing war on line is totally ok…but I digress.  It was like prying gum off your shoe to get him out of the house.  The movie was fun, the special effects were great, and that’s about it.  It was very predictable, but in a good way.  I wish they would have left the romance out of it.  If I want romance, I’ll see a chick flick.  I don’t need romance and heart break in my summer comic boo hero movie..thank you very much.  Out of the message, I think the first one was probably the best, followed by 2, then this one last…..there’s probably a message there.

Well, 3 movies seen so far…pretty good.  What we have sort of fallen into is we see one he wants, and one I want.  Last week was mine with “Wild Hogs” so this week was his.  I have to admit,since he started talking about “Shooter”,  I was mildly interested.  Also, I heard a radio review that said Mark Walberg was poised to be the next action hero.  So I figured at the worst I would be bored.  Actually Shooter was good.  I really enjoyed it and I didn’t find  myself  thinking “this is so ridiculous” like I did during “Ghost Rider.”  Plus, if I do say so myself, while Mark Walberg is not my idea of eye candy, I think he really put in some time working out for this role ;)