Vixy's Den

Movie Review - The International

2009-02-14T10:37:00.002-06:00

The trailer for The International had me anticipating seeing this movie. Looked like it was going to be a high action, intense thriller with great acting.

I guess one out of three isn't bad.

Clive Owen and Naomi Watts are great in this movie. You don't see them as overacting and you genuinely like their characters and look forward to their presence on the screen.

The photography was beautiful. Never thought I would want to go to Berlin anytime soon, but some of the scenery that you see is just so unique that I think it might actually be interesting to visit. And a few of the aerial shots were so well done that I almost felt like I was there.

However, that was basically all that I could find that was good about The International.

The most annoying thing had to be the score. During 98% of the film, you were given the impression that something super intense was about to happen, so involuntarily your heart starts racing, preparing you for this wonderful event to happen and then it never does. And then when you finally DO have that action scene, you are already so numb to the previously intense building score that it just isn't fulfilling.

A close second was Naomi Watts' hair. She is a very pretty girl and you look forward to seeing her in each scene. But her bright blonde hair in comparison to her drab colored clothes and the rest of the cast's wardrobe and hair color just stuck out so much it reminded me of the red dress in Schindler's List because it is so distracting that you have trouble focusing on what is going on around her.

Maybe that was just me.

A definite third annoyance is that I couldn't tell you what this movie was about. I am fairly certain that I did not miss any of it, and (except for getting distracted by the music and her hair) I was paying attention, but the plot was all over the place that I really have no idea what the purpose of it was supposed to be. Something about some corporation that was funding the purchase of missles and tracking down the individuals responsible and then the people that are conducting the investigation are getting picked off one by one, so you have people chasing around other people and everyone has guns and that's about all I got out of it.

There were some action scenes and quite a few were pretty bloody but there were too many slow spots for it to be called an action film.

And there were supposedly intense moments that some people might say would make it a thriller (the score would certainly make you believe that), but it wasn't interesting enough to be that, either.

There were two interesting scenes that stuck out that I liked:

1. They were looking at two bullet holes in a wall/pillar/post/whatever it was and there were some tiny flags on the ground that people had been waving at the rally where the shooting had taken place and she tore the flags off the small poles and then pushed the poles through the bullet holes to figure out the bullet trajectory (a la CSI) so that was really neat.

2. The shootout at the Guggenheim that everyone is posting about was dumb yet fascinating at the same time. Dumb because it was just a bunch of people shooting at each other with machine guns for a very long period of time (I want to say it was a 10 minute scene) but fascinating because with each gun shot, you could see the blanket of bullet holes appearing, almost beautifying the various walls and ceiling.

But two interesting scenes do not make for a good movie.

The ending they sort of showed in the trailer, but of course it doesn't end up exactly as you see it. I was looking forward to that scene to see what took place after the trailer cuts it off, but it was disappointing. Not at all the rush of adrenaline scene that you think it's going to be.

I was having a very hard time not walking out, but I just had to stay for this fabulous ending that was going to tie everything together and make it worth my time to have seen it. In the meantime, though, I was constantly checking my phone to see how much more time it was going to be before it was over and I could leave the theater. As soon as the credits started rolling, I left, so I don't know if there was anything interesting after the credits, but honestly...I really couldn't have cared less at that point.

Such a shame, too, because the next movie I saw had a trailer for The International so I got to see it again and remembering the scenes again from the movie, itself and comparing to the snippets they show in the trailer, the trailer makes it look so well thought out and interesting. But it just wasn't.

I checked IMDB and it's getting a 7/10 rating. Makes me question if I saw the same movie these other people saw.

Anyone care to defend this movie?

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Not Easily Broken

2009-01-24T00:26:00.002-06:00

Dave and Clarice are sweetly in love. They get married and then after the honeymoon is over and real life sets in, they let things come in between their relationship. Her job, his job, her mother, his friends. All of them play a part in what is tugging them apart. When they are in a very serious car accident, her mother moves in to help take care of Clarice and it becomes more obvious what problems their marriage has been suffering all this time. It doesn't help matters much that Clarice's physical therapist seems to possess the two things her husband has been craving...a son and someone to listen to him.

I knew nothing about this movie beforehand. Never saw a single trailer. But, seeing on imdb that Taraji P. Henson was in a starring role, I immediately wanted to see it. I loved her performance so much in The Family That Preys that I was anxious to see her on screen again. She has this presence about her that makes you really feel what she's feeling. And she's just so beautiful...even when she's being a bitch (of which she is for quite a bit of the movie) you can still see her side of it and not completely condemn her for her actions.

As far as the title of the movie. It's really quite beautiful and symbolic of marriage. Opening scene, the two of them are getting married and the Bishop performing the ceremony wraps a three strand rope gently around them while explaining that the two of them represent one each of the threads on a rope, but having a three strand rope, the third strand represents God and as long as they don't forget that they have each other and they have God in their lives, the bond they have will be "not easily broken". :]

Great film for everyone. I think there isn't a single person that can't learn a lesson or two from seeing this and while it is a drama, there are enough funny moments to keep it from being too serious. This is not a Tyler Perry movie, but is of that great caliber of quality where you could just watch it over and over again.

Okay to wait for it to come to dvd, but please do yourself the favor and don't let it pass you by when it does. This one is buy-worthy and I think you will find yourself wanting to see it again and again, also.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-24T00:05:00.003-06:00

The story of Slumdog Millionaire takes place in India where teenager Jamal manages to become a contestant on a version of the American game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". Since a "slumdog" could not possibly know the answers to the questions he has gotten correct, Jamal is accused of cheating and throughout the entire movie, you see the flashback of his life with his brother, Salim, and the girl-turned-young-woman, Latika, who stole his heart. All of this is told while Jamal is defending how he got each answer right.

I will be the first to admit how wrong I was when I thought I would hate this movie. I reluctantly loved it! The entire story was riveting from the very first scene and although it is a drama, there were a few really funny scenes. And the ending credits were a bit odd, but all in all a very well done movie from start to finish! I even loved the music so much that I just got finished buying a copy of the soundtrack.

One thing I think is noteworthy that I doubt anyone else will mention (because I'm weird that way) is how refreshing it was for me that the lead female character did not spend the dance sequences teetering around in high heels. Unless they are actual dance shoes, girls attempting to dance in high heels can be so distracting.

All of the actors had really good chemistry and the villians were some of the most evil you have seen in a long time.

If you have a chance to see this in the theater, I highly recommend experiencing the music and sound effects on the big screen and then it is definitely buy-worthy when it comes out on dvd.

Very, very good movie!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - My Bloody Valentine 3-D

2009-01-16T00:20:00.004-06:00

Just got home from seeing an advanced screening of My Bloody Valentine 3-D.

What a fucking cool movie!

Okay, so basic plot is this guy goes on a psycho rampage in a mine and kills everyone he can get his axe into....except for one guy who is spared due to cops showing up and saving the day by shooting the guy. But he runs out of the mine and no one speaks of him again. Flash forward ten years and killings have begun again. So, automatically, people in the town think that it is the same psycho killer from ten years ago. But they killed him. Didn't they? A trip to the place where he was buried shows no sign of a body and now the mystery begins of is it really the killer from before? If so, did he rise from the dead? Or was he never dead? Or do we have a copycat on our hands?

I'm not much of a slasher type movie fan. Couldn't have given two rips about the Jason or Michael Myers series at the beginning of their respective chains (although, I am finding myself enjoying the remakes of these), but even though this was filled (and I DO mean FILLED) with gore sequences, this was a very enjoyable and intriguing storyline...along with having the kickass 3-D effects, of course! I think the second biggest jump moment for me was the scene from the trailer where he throws the axe and it hits the windshield of the car...that really did look like it was gonna hit me. :] The first biggest, I won't spoil it, but it was really close to the beginning and it totally hit me by surprise.

I should probably mention that there's some very nice eye candy for both sexes. All of the girls dress like sluts, whether intentional or "accidental" (what was with the denim cut off skirt where the pockets hung down below the skirt...ugh, how tacky...and the man's flannel shirt with one button too many undone was common...oh and the very first scene, it is almost impossible not to stare at her chest the entire scene because she is wearing a two sizes too small white t-shirt with a black bra underneath...or at least, it looks like it's black...she never takes her shirt off) and there is a scene where you have full frontal for quite a bit of time while the one girl is running for her life and thankfully since you're seeing her for such a long time, she at least has a very nice body. Then the guys...oh, man, I was having a hard time picking out which one to drool over more...Kerr Smith was looking F-I-N-E and Jensen Ackles always has this something yummy about him that comes through when he speaks. (I'm such a sucker for the 5 o'clock shadow look.)

One quick note about going to see a 3-D movie. As a suggestion...make sure to sit in the center of whatever row you sit in. This evening, I, stupidly, decided that I was determined not to have anyone sitting in front of me, so I picked the second row back, right behind the bars, so I could put my feet up and there was no chair in front of the bars for me to have to worry about that. However, by doing this, even though the effects were still really cool, I didn't really feel like I was enjoying the full effect of the 3-D experience. I had the emergency lights on the floor right next to me and because it wasn't as dark, it was more like watching just a regular movie. So, I assure you, I WILL be seeing this movie again tomorrow night...oops, I mean tonight...and I am quite positive that the 3-D experience will be that much better.

And for all the horror fans who WILL go see this movie, make damned sure that you stay til the very, very, very end. I promise you, you will not regret it. Was this really a horror movie, though? I mean, we're not talking occult...the killer wasn't possessed by a demon or anything. He was just fucking sick in the head. This shit could really happen! That makes it more of a thriller in my book.

Highly recommended, must-see for 3-D fans, slasher movie enthusiasts, or just anyone who likes a good whodunit, since you're kept guessing til the very last scene. Yes, I would go see it, even it wouldn't have been offered in 3-D (I really liked the storyline), but as long as it's still playing in 3-D, you owe it to yourself to find that theater that is showing it and wait to see the "regular" version when it comes out on dvd. Hopefully, though, 3-D will be offered on dvd as well.

I can't wait to see this again in about 18 hours!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Unborn

2009-01-11T21:41:00.004-06:00

Oh, my. Where to begin with this mess of a movie? How about the good points first and then the bad right after.

Okay, so with all horror movies, I like to count how many truly scary moments there are as I am watching the film. And this one had a pretty impressive 6. They were jump scares, but still very effective. So that was a pretty good thing. But, there were quite a few far and in between scenes getting to the next scare and the story wasn't as exciting as it could have been.

Then, the eye candy was decent. The very pretty Odette was a poor man's Megan Fox and looked almost identical to her, once her eyes were blue. But for as much as you saw her in her underwear, there wasn't any skin shown. And to my disappointment, Cam didn't shed anything beyond his shirt.

The story was very interesting. I like occult movies and thought I had heard of all the different possible plots you could have when it came to beings from beyond, but this new Dybbuk theory was definitely a fascinating area that I decided to wikipedia search for. (That was the oddball scene they show in the trailer with the upside down head that everyone seems to laugh at.) This creature comes from the Kabbalah faith and the interesting thing was that at the end of the movie there was actually a line in the credits that stated that no Toran was destroyed for the filming of this movie. (Oh, please....have you ever seen a disclaimer saying that no bible was destroyed for a film? I think that's a bit extreme.) Anyway, this soul that hasn't moved on yet is trying to possess a living human in the form of the Odette character, because her twin brother died in utero and he is "ready to be born now" which is shown by her eyes changing from brown to blue.

So that brings me to the very weirdness of this movie. There are several references of holocaust survivors mixed with demons possessing. And it just didn't flow together for me like it could have. The exorcism attempt wasn't very believable, either, when you compare it to all of the other dozens that you have seen in other movies. And never before I have I seen the possession move from one body to the next to the next.

Ugh. If you absolutely must see it (and, remember, no one gets naked and there aren't any nightmare worthy scary scenes) do yourself a favor and wait til it comes out on dvd. Or at the very least, see it at the $5 matinee.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Gran Torino

2009-01-11T20:15:00.002-06:00

I will be honest. I hated that I loved this movie so much! I am not a huge fan of Clint Eastwood. In fact, I would practically cringe at the thought of seeing a movie with him in it. I guess I'm in the minority when pretty much everyone I know loves his films. So you can see why I wasn't too thrilled to see it.

So why did I, then? Because after having seen the trailer two and a half dozen times (as it seemed to be shown before every single movie I went to the theater to see), it started looking like it might be a pretty decent story. Despite the fact that it starred someone that I would under normal circumstances avoid at all costs.

But from the first opening scene until the very last, this movie was so incredibly enthralling that I am now making sure that I tell everyone to see it.

Basic storyline: Walt just lost his wife and now that his kids and grandkids are thinking that he doesn't have much time left, they are trying to take advantage of him every way possible. The son is wanting to put him up in a nursing home and the granddaughter is wanting his furniture for her dorm room, just to name a couple of examples. But Walt has no intention of leaving his home and even decides to suffer living next door to his racially different neighbors so as not to change his normal everyday routine. (It's kind of a big part of the plot to explain what race his neighbors are, so I have decided to leave that part out of my review, so you can learn for yourself, when you see the movie.)

His prized possession is his Ford Gran Torino of which everyone wants to get their hands on...including the kid next door who has been told to steal it in order to be initiated in a gang. Saying anything more than that would be spoiling the experience.

I found this story so completely wonderful and captivating and the acting was so terrific that I know I want to see it again before it leaves theaters. Clint Eastwood did a very good job, but I favored newcomers Ahney Her (Sue) and Bee Vang (Thao) who will hopefully get huge roles thanks to this movie. And there were excellent scenes from John Carroll Lynch , who provided a little bit of comedy relief. (However, this was far from his role of brother to Drew Carey.)

While there were LOTS of funny moments, this was not a light-hearted comedy. Far from it. Very dark and adult content (and quite a bit of language, too) that it is clearly an R movie. In fact, I think a few of the scenes if viewed by youngsters, might tramautize them. Seriously.

So as long as you are over the age of 17 (or possibly a mature 15) and are in the mood for a truly excellent story with great actors, go to your local theater and see Gran Torino. As I am proof, you do not have to be a Clint Eastwood fan to thoroughly enjoy this movie.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Seven Pounds

2009-01-01T22:34:00.002-06:00

Don't read any movie reviews and don't listen to anyone tell you any spoilers. Just go see this movie and take a box of tissues with you because you will need them.

The beginning is the end and within the first third of the movie you can kinda figure out how the ending comes to be, but you don't really know the why until the very end. And in the meantime, you are getting little bits of info here and there until the final scenes where it all comes together in a complete and satisfying ending.

You will be confused for at least the first half hour as you are trying to figure out why he's saying what he's saying and why he's doing what he's doing, but that's part of the fun of letting the mystery unravel slowly.

This movie yanks pretty hard at the heartstrings, but I am very confident that when you stick it out, by the end you will have thoroughly enjoyed both the story and the acting in Seven Pounds.

Please trust me when I tell you that this movie is best viewed when you know nothing about it beforehand. Would I steer you wrong?

No spoilers will be allowed to be posted because I want everyone to fully enjoy this one. This will easily be one of the most powerful movies you will ever see. Kudos to both Will Smith and Rosario Dawson for such great chemistry together and for some solid acting. And whoever played Inez in the beginning...such a heartbreaking scene, she should be nominated for best cameo or something. Just absolutely terrific!

Everything about this movie was great! The extra slow pacing is required to develop the relationships that are formed with all the characters and even though you know with the first scene what the ending is, you still need to take that journey with him to fully understand.

This is a long movie, so make sure when seeing it at the theater, that you take a potty break before you take your seat because if you miss even one minute, you could easily be lost.

Must-see movie!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Spirit

2009-01-01T09:34:00.002-06:00

The Spirit was a halfway enjoyable movie as long as you don't have anything else going on that you would rather be doing.

First let me say that I was not a huge fan of Sin City and I never saw 300, but The Spirit looked interesting and of course the eye candy throughout was what drew me to it.

The love story portrayed in the bunch of flashback scenes shown were adorable and I would have preferred to have seen the story play out with just those characters. The Eva Mendes characters (both past and present) definitely made for the best scenes, and out of all of the actors, I thought she did the best job. (That should tell you right there how poorly the "greats" were when it came time for their scenes.)

A few problems I had that kept me from enjoying most of the movie:

Sam Jackson. His acting is starting to get annoying for me. I just hate it when an.ac.tor.has.to.e.nun.ci.ate.e.ver.y.line.in.a.moo.vie. Aaaaaaah! Nails on a chalkboard for me! And he did this in EVERY scene he had!

Scarlett Johannson. I like her in pretty much every movie she's been in that I've seen. Even Scoop which would have been a really stupid movie had it not been for her presence. But in this one, she dropped her voice about two octaves for her part. Why? To sound sexy? Her voice is plenty sexy enough as-is. By dropping her voice extra low combined with her trying to be a comic book actor, she simply sounded like a robot. A good-looking, nicely dressed robot. But still a robot. (And let me tell you, the scenes with just Sam and Scarlett were almost unbearable.)

Paz Vega. She was put in the film purely for eye candy. It's apparent. That's fine. I'm all for eye candy, but they shouldn't have let her talk. At all. She was doing fine just dancing around our hero while trying to get info out of him and teasing him with her body movements. But as soon as she started talking....trying to sound tough and menacing...toss up between Sam and Paz for horrible acting. Very painful listening to it. Thankfully, her scenes were few.

The angel of death. Was that really Jaime King? Wow, she's really come a long way since her small role in Blow. In the trailers, I kept thinking that was Carmen Electra. (Go ahead and tell me you didn't think the same thing.) Anyway, the character would appear out of nowhere, every 10 or 15 minutes or so, signaled by a weird heavenly sounding vocalization and then some more awful acting would be had while she's floating around either in the water or in the air and the whole thing just felt like, I don't know...a commercial almost. I don't think you're supposed to expect to see commercials while you're watching a movie at the movie theater. It was just weird. After the third appearance with the same intro, I was getting really annoyed with her presence on screen.

The snow. It was very pretty and created several romantic scenes, but it was so obviously fake that there were people walking around in scantily clad clothing not even showing a shiver! When it's coming down that hard and that thick, dammit, I wanna see someone acknowledging that it is cold outside. I don't want to see someone flouncing around in a belly dancer's outfit like it's summer.

The overextended fight scenes. Our hero and villian are punching each other in the face and trying to drown one another in both water and then later mud and even after finding out that each one cannot die, they continue punching each other and trying to kill the other. For several minutes. The fight scenes weren't really that great, anyway and I was left with the feeling of "What was the point of it again?".

So all that said, I certainly don't see this as being "best movie of the year" as I've seen a few trailers advertise this. FAR from it. But it was still worth a look. I really wish they would have had more of the flashback scenes. I can't tell you enough how interesting that storyline was, and THOSE actors were less fake sounding than the rest. I wanted more of those scenes. Maybe I'll get lucky and there will be extended scenes on the dvd.

My opinion would be to just wait til it comes out on dvd and maybe watch it on mute with closed captioning, only taking it off mute for Eva's scenes. That way you can still know what's going on with the plot of the movie and look at the occasional stunning visual effects without having to listen to the poorly performed scenes of the rest of the cast. Then, there's a good chance you will enjoy the movie.

Vixy :]

Happy New Year!!!

2008-12-31T18:05:00.002-06:00

I have really sucked at keeping this update, but that is the one (and only) resolution I will make for the year...to actually post at least once a week. I still see the movies, I just have had no desire or motivation to publish my opinion. I keep forgetting that my outlet for all this stress sitting on my shoulders is to type...and what better way to type than to talk about the one thing that I do on a regular basis, right? And I still plan on uploading some photos every now and again.

So that is my resolution for the new year. I don't plan on adding "losing weight" or "coming out of my shell" or "spending more time with family" to the list, because I can never ever EVER keep those, so why even bother? It just brings heartache later to find out that there is one more thing that you are a failure at. No thank you. Don't get me wrong, I do still have lots of personal goals that I would like to achieve, but I will keep them as private goals and not turn them into the dreaded "New Year's Resolution".

Anyone out there brave enough to share resolutions, have at it. And if you were actually able to keep them (any of them), I raise my glass to you. You should be very proud! And who knows, perhaps by next year I will have lost the weight and have come out of my shell enough to enjoy spending more time with family and will actually have that someone special to spend New Year's with.

Til later, Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The House Bunny

2008-08-23T07:02:00.002-06:00

I love the ugly duckling becomes a swan movie and this one really delivered.

Shelley has been a misfit ever since she was first abandoned as a baby, but once she hits puberty, she starts being noticed and next thing you know, she's living at the Playboy Mansion where she is showered with love and surrounded by a wonderful family. But the day after her 27th birthday party, she is given a letter from Hef saying that she has 2 hours to move all of her stuff out of the mansion because she is just too old to be living there anymore. She doesn't get to keep the car that Hef gave her because it belongs to the mansion and because she is now an outcast, not even her cat will come with her (quite the funny scene with the cat).

So now without a job or a place to live, she wanders upon a college campus and decides that she wants to be a house mother. The Zetas are about to lose their charter due to lack of members, but with Shelley's help, they become more outgoing and gain a better fashion sense and in turn, get more attention from guys and even better - pledges.

I guess you could call this the Revenge Of The Nerds for girls. But I assure you, the guys will be so drawn to all of the hot chicks walking around scantily clothed, that the girls won't have to drag their guys kicking and screaming to see this movie.

While The House Bunny has a lot of heart (and a lot of laughs), I'm not sure I like the message that it sends because it basically says that as long as you start out being pretty, you can always buy the right clothes, fix your hair the right way and then you can always get the book smarts later. I think it tries to tell the opposite by saying that as long as you're pretty on the inside, you can be pretty on the outside, but it doesn't quite make it. Because, let's face it, the only girl that was "fat" was pregnant and that hardly counts, now, doesn't it.

Anyway, this was a very enjoyable movie from beginning to end and based on the trailers, you know that there are going to be a bunch of deleted scenes when the dvd comes out. I mostly loved all of the clothes, but you have to rock the body before you could even attempt to wear most of them.

Once it comes out on dvd, I know it will become part of my selective dozen that I could watch over and over again.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Death Race

2008-08-23T06:36:00.002-06:00

Death Race was excellent! Great action! Hot bodies! Cool explosions! And enough of a plot to tell a story but not get in the way of all of car crashes and fights going on.

Movie takes place in 2012 where the economy is so bad that crime has gotten out of control and big corporations now run all of the correctional facilities. In order to entertain the masses, one such prison, Terminal Island, starts a game with the inmates called Death Race where if you win 5 races, you win your freedom. It's a battle to the death. A gladiator sport taking place behind the wheel. The only rule is to stay on the track and if you can stay alive, you just might win the race and eventually your freedom.

Ames just got laid off from his job and after collecting his final paycheck, he goes home to his loving wife and baby girl and he gets knocked out and then framed for murdering his wife and then ends up sentenced at Terminal Island. He is offered his freedom if he wins just one race and as the movie progresses, you find that the good guys and the bad guys aren't what they seem.

Excellent acting by all. Jason Statham was looking F-I-N-E! I especially enjoyed the scene where he was doing pull ups in his cell...showing off his well toned arms and rock hard abs. (Needed to cool off after that scene!) But it's not just the guys that have the hot bodies. There are plenty of hot chicks for the men to drool over as well. You see, each driver gets a "guide" in the passenger seat during the race and for most drivers (all but one) that guide is a hot chick from the women's correctional. (Of course Ames gets the hottest of all of them...would you expect anything different?)

Joan Allen was probably my favorite to watch, though, as the warden. Her performance as the cold-hearted bitch was dead on. And with her facial expressions, you knew immediately that she is all business and takes shit from no one.

I had to leave the theater right as the ending credits started so at this time I cannot tell you if there was anything extra at the end, but I do plan on seeing it again maybe this weekend still, so I will know soon. I wouldn't really expect anything, though. It had a pretty satisfying ending. And in fact, it kinda had two endings of which I would have been happy had the movie ended after the first one.

As far as audience reaction, I saw this one at 5:30 when there was another show earlier at 5 and one later at 7, so those were probably more crowded. My group consisted of maybe 15 people. But everyone was cheering and clapping at the end, so I'm thinking it was a crowd pleaser.

It probably does gear more towards guys with all the testosterone flying around everywhere, but girls should like it just as much.

Oh, and the aerial views of the prison were gorgeous!

Anyway, let me know what you thought of it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Fly Me To The Moon 3-D

2008-08-23T06:26:00.002-06:00

This will probably be the shortest movie review I have ever done.

I went to see it because it was 3-D and no other reason. If that is your only reason, you will find it to be enjoyable because they did a really good job with the 3-D effects. If you are looking for anything else, don't waste your time or your money. Before you judge me too harshly, I like kids' movies probably more than the average adult does, but this movie was way too cutesy even for me. There was too much baby-talk going on that it took every fiber in my body to NOT get up and walk out about a third of the way through.

If you're wondering what the storyline is, the basic plot is that a few flies end up hitching a ride in the space shuttle to the moon along with Buzz Aldrin (who makes a special appearance at the end of the movie) and it's the neatest adventure they've ever had. Whole family is proud of them ... and then pretty much the movie ends.

Little kids will probably like it but that's about it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Rocker

2008-08-21T00:05:00.003-06:00

I saw the trailer for The Rocker and thought it looked like a mildly interesting movie and since it just opened tonight, I figured I'd check it out.

What an EXCELLENT movie! The perfect escape movie! Everything about it was entertaining and it let me forget about the super-crappy day I had at work and I was able to just sit back and enjoy the hilarious costumes and the surprisingly great music!

The beginning of the film was a little cheesy but it was supposed to be, because that is what the hair bands were in the 80's. Fish is the drummer of the up and coming rock sensation Vesuvius and after a hit show, the band is offered a contract with a record company. Only catch...they have to get rid of Fish because the owner wants to put his son in the band. Dangling fame and fortune in front of the rest of the band members, they turn on Fish and kick him out and then flash forward 20 years and you see the once full of energy, never say die ex-band member now part of the dull rat race and with Vesuvius climbing the charts higher and higher with each new album and their faces literally everywhere, Fish still has not gotten past the band screwing him over and that leads to his live-in girlfriend kicking him out and now he is forced to live with his sister and her family.

As luck would have it, his nephew is part of a band and they need a drummer so they give Fish a shot. Obviously he isn't an immediate match for their fashion style but he is able to blend right in when it comes to the music and his next challenge will be to get them a gig, because if he is able to do this then he will be allowed to join the band.

I don't want to say much more about it because it was a fun ride of a movie and while it was a bit predictable, there was lots of heart as well as lots of laughs and all of the characters had great chemistry together. I was especially surprised at Christina Applegate's role. Her scenes were probably the best out of everyone's. She has come a long way since her Kelly Bundy days and still looks just as good...if not better. One of the best lines in the movie was where the manager was trying to hit on her and said that she had probably heard the term MILF but he was going to refer to her as a MILMSLT (mothers I'd like to make sweet love to) and she got all serious and said how sweet that was of him to say and then she said she would refer to him as PILS and asked if he had ever heard of it (of course he hadn't) and she said it's people I'd like to stab. :]

And one more of my favorite lines was where the band members (the band is called A.D.D., by the way, but it is not pronounced "add" which has several jokes attached to it that you'll just have to hear in the movie) were all in the car together and the lead singer was jotting down some lyrics and Fish asked him to sing a few bars of this newest song he was writing. The song was called Bitter and it was an extremely depressing song. After he sang a few lines, Fish said "There is some cyanide and razors in the glove compartment. Help yourself." :]

So the music from Vesuvius was a cross between Motley Crue and Van Halen (from the David Lee Roth days) but the majority of the songs you hear were from A.D.D. which was more like Maroon 5 meets Linkin Park with a shoulder brush by Black Eyed Peas. If you like any of those groups then I am fairly sure you would enjoy the music.

I don't like rating movies using the star system because I feel that there are too many factors that need to be considered to simply give a movie a numerical value. So I will just say that this was a great feel-good movie that keeps you laughing and your toes tapping and there was also some nice eye candy (Emma & Christina for the guys, Teddy for the girls - oh my god were his eyes gorgeous!). I don't care what those other idiot critics say about how stupid some of the scenes were and how corny everything is because I can just feel them bashing it right now...if you enjoy rock music and you like to laugh, and you're looking for a way to escape the stress of an uber shitty day at work, GO SEE THE ROCKER!

In fact, the only movie I anticipate being just as funny, if not funnier, is The House Bunny. But, you see, I am already biased into liking it because any movie that the storyline is turning housefrows into sluts can't possibly go wrong.

Anyway, let me know what your opinion is of The Rocker. I can see this being a movie I would watch over and over again.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Mirrors

2008-08-15T02:21:00.003-06:00

Just got back from the midnite advanced screening of Mirrors.

Now, THIS was a horror movie! It's about time! I have not been this freaked out over a movie since The Ring...

You may want to check my earlier post regarding movies that scare me to get a better feel for what really makes my heart race, but the movie ended well over an hour ago and my heart rate is just now returning to normal. And, in fact, there were only two small groups of people that were in the theater besides me and they were gathered around their cars discussing the movie and quite a few of them seemed pretty shaken up as well, so this time, it wasn't just me being the wimp.

So the basic story: Ben has been temporarily suspended from his police position due to an unfortunate accident that is still pending investigation so he takes on a part-time job of security guard for an empty department store building that was pretty much destroyed in a fire several years before. Ben starts seeing things (that may or may not really be there) in the mirrors at the store and when he digs a bit into how the previous security guard died, he starts fearing for the safety of his family.

The movie opens up with a man running like the devil, himself, is after him and I was having a minor panic attack as he started running straight toward the screen (when you read my post about what movies scare me, you will find this type of thing terrifies me). Thankfully he wasn't a creature. Just a normal looking guy. But as he starts looking for a place to hide from the whatever is chasing him, he runs into an empty room which ends up being a locker room and after seeing that the window only opens to a brick wall (stupid architect :]), he notices that all of the locker doors start opening, displaying mirrors inside each one. Then he sees one very large mirror and as he approaches it, what his reflection does is very bone-chilling.

After seeing the movie I was disappointed that "trailer 2" gave away pretty much every good scare scene - albeit some were just quick flashes, but if you know what you are looking for, you will see them all - but as long as you just stick with "trailer 1" which has been the one advertising the most on tv, then you will most assuredly enjoy the movie more without being hit in the face with a bunch of spoilers.

I do not want to give away anything because one of the fun things about this movie was trying to piece all of the clues together to figure out what was going to happen next and how the problem was going to be resolved. And in the meantime, the story, itself was entertaining, and the scares were plentiful. At the start of the film I decided to count how many times I had that "oh my god, I'm gonna pee my pants I'm so freaked out" moments and there were 36. And it should be mentioned that the count was about 28 until the last 3 or 4 scenes of the movie and then I was having trouble keeping track because a few of them were coming at me every few seconds as flashes (so maybe I should only count those as a couple all together?).

Great makeup job for the scaries. Great score to let you know what creepy stuff might or might not be coming up. Not the best acting, but certainly not the worst and with the types of things that were required for them to do, I think they all did a pretty good job. For the guys, there was some nice eye candy throughout. And the actors all had good chemistry together so you really felt like they were a family.

But the absolute best part? The ending. It was WICKED COOL! VERY satisfying. I won't say if it was a happy ending or a sad ending because that would ruin the fun, but I think you will agree, too, that it was an excellent ending.

If you like horror movies even in the slightest, you will enjoy this movie. And...when it comes to demon possession, you really never know what could happen. I mean, The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror were supposedly based on true occurrences. Either way, if you're looking for something scary, this is your movie.

Might I suggest seeing it on opening night and enjoy that full theater experience with a packed house. I am anxious to see it again to find out how others around me react when they are seeing it for the first time.

One word of warning, though. This movie is NOT for the faint of heart. Seriously. The scares don't always give you breathing space between each freaky thing, so if your heart is already racing and you get to the next scary scene without a break in between, that wouldn't be a good thing. I don't think I'll have daymares from this one, but I will tell you that I am wide awake now and going back to sleep is not an option.

So go see it and let me know what you thought of it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Tropic Thunder

2008-08-13T01:21:00.002-06:00

Just got back home from the midnite sneak preview of Tropic Thunder. Of which, by the way, there was nothing after the credits worth staying for.

There were about 50 or so people in the theater and even though I didn't make it a point to look at every single person, I was pretty positive that at my ripe old age of 35, I was the oldest in the crowd.

Ignoring everyone else, I did my typical routine of reading up on the movie I was about to see on imdb.com while waiting for the previews to start and the majority of the reviews gave 8/10 stars and some 10/10. So after seeing the trailer and thinking the movie looked great, and then reading these great reviews, I was really looking forward to seeing Tropic Thunder.

I don't know what went wrong, but I spent practically the entire time the movie was playing, wondering if I was perhaps watching a different movie than everyone else. I would hear hoots of laughter and I just didn't get what was so funny. For example, character is on the ground with his feet in the air complaining about his ass hurting and there are HOWLS of laughter erupting all around me. And that's funny...why? Did I miss something? (I'm pretty sure I didn't fall asleep.)

There were lots of violent scenes that borderlined on grotesque (hole in the helmet squirting out never ending gushes of blood a la Saving Private Ryan) that were supposed to be funny and there was quite a bit of slapstick humor (I'm not a huge fan of that) with people getting tossed about and there were lots of really annoying characters that I flat out didn't care if they survived or not.

However, I will say that ALL of the scenes with Tom Cruise were excellent! His character was truly entertaining for every minute that he performed, but for the rest of the cast....not so much. Ben Stiller was rocking some nice looking biceps so that was pretty good eye candy for me, but it wasn't enough to completely hold my attention to the story. One more tiny thing that was kinda neat at the end...all of the brief cameos. So I guess, to be fair, maybe you have to be in a certain kind of goofball comedy mood to enjoy this flick, that I apparently wasn't in. And maybe in a few weeks or so, I might give it another chance.

Until/unless that time, though, for now, I'm NOT going to recommend it. Tom was great but not quite worth the price of admission to see his short 5 or 6 scenes.

After you see it, and think it was great, feel free to argue the points with me.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Swing Vote

2008-08-04T21:14:00.002-06:00

From the trailer, Swing Vote looked to be a somewhat mildly entertaining movie and I was expecting a few laughs with a mediocre storyline. I'm not much of a fan of Kevin Costner because typically the movies he stars in are not storylines I am interested in.

However, Swing Vote was excellent! Except for a few slow scenes here and there, everything else about this movie was terrific!

Basic plot: Presidential election time, before Bud's vote can be placed in the computer, the power goes out which means his vote didn't count and he is now allowed to re-cast his vote in 10 days. Media gets word of this and since he seems indecisive, both presidential candidates try to sway him to get his support. Bud previously thought that one person didn't make a difference and didn't even plan on voting but his daughter, Molly, makes him promise he will (it is, afterall, his civic duty) and now his vote will literally decide who the next president will be.

While there are several laughs, this is mostly a heart-felt drama focusing on the relationship between a single dad and his tween going on 21 daughter and how he's the one that has some serious growing up to do.

All of the characters are genuine and you will find yourself caught up in the moment, not sure who to root for, but always seeing Molly's point of view and feeling for her while she plays the role of caretaker to her dad yet still manages to excel in her schoolwork.

Madeline Carroll, who plays Molly, is destined to be the next Dakota Fanning or Abigail Breslin. She easily fit in with the pros and you never once questioned how she got the part. Definitely look forward to her next movie. She was able to make every emotion genuine and had an infectious smile, plus, she didn't appear to be a Hollywood kid trying to play a normal kid. She just seemed like a normal kid. A very believable brainiac kid, at that. I just can't say enough good things about her performance.

The ending was a bit predictable, but the whole moral of the story is to make sure and research both sides and really find out about the issues that the candidates are for or against and use that information to make your decision, because your one vote, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, DOES matter.

Highly recommended! Very powerful message and quite the inspiring movie. I think this will be a sleeper hit because it didn't get much advertising, but hopefully word of mouth will encourage everyone to go see it, anyway.

There is quite a bit of tame swearing, but otherwise, this is a great film for the whole family.

Go see it and then let me know what you thought of it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Dark Knight

2008-07-31T17:21:00.003-06:00

At long last, my review of The Dark Knight. :]

I saw this movie at a 3:15am showing at my regular theater. I had been planning on seeing it at the midnite show since the previous week, but found out a couple of days before it was playing that it was going to be at midnite AND at 3:15, so that allowed me to see the midnite show of Mamma Mia (excellent, by the way - review ... eventually :]) and then the 3:15 of The Dark Knight.

First let me say that I woke up "late" from my alarm and didn't make it to the theater until about 11:20. After parking in West Jesus (East Jesus was full already) by the time I made it inside, and got to where there were only 5 people in front of me, the signs up on the wall were flashing all of the different midnite shows that were going on for The Dark Knight and there were a total of 10 theater rooms showing this movie. And EIGHT out of the 10 were flashing "sold out" (I remembered the midnite show for The Incredible Hulk being pretty packed, but that one didn't even hold a candle to this movie as far as attendance was concerned. There were people EVERYWHERE.) That's why I was glad they were showing a 3:15 because I really am not much for huge crowds and Mamma Mia only had about 5 people in the theater (but more on that with the Mamma Mia review.)

Anyway, I had exited the previously mentioned movie and was on my way to get primo seating choices for The Dark Knight when I passed the manager in the hallway. He obviously knew I hadn't just come out of TDK theater because the movie wasn't over yet and I asked him if he thought there would be a lot of people for the 3:15 showing. (I mean what idiot would go to a theater at 3 in the morning, right? :] ) He told me they had sold 60 seats already and that there would probably be several people that would want to see it again after having seen the midnite show. Well, that "several" people ended up being more like 200 people. It was pretty packed! And the really nice thing was they were actually checking ticket stubs at the door to ensure that people were not just piggybacking off a previous showing to try to get in free.

So, walking into the theater, it was quiet except for the chattering people in the crowd. There was no background music and even though it was nearing the 30 minutes before the movie starts mark, there was no First Look behind the scenes program. (They do not typically do that for the late night movie showings.) When the previews finally started, a few were ho-hum and then they got to Pineapple Express (which will be having a late night showing this Tuesday, by the way) it seemed like the entire theater applauded and whooped, so I get the feeling THAT show will be packed, too. And then the opening credits started for The Dark Knight and LOTS of people started cheering. Then all got quiet and from that point on, it was like a roller coaster ride.

From the very first scene until the very last scene, everything was either in your face action or interesting storyline or just flat out great acting. And I will be the first to admit that I was wrong in thinking that people were just giving Heath Ledger the Oscar nod because he had died. He REALLY was THAT good in this movie. A very chilling performance and you weren't quite sure just how far he would take his cruelness and a couple of scenes I really wanted to have the rewind button handy because a few of the previous scenes didn't make much sense til the end and then it was just...explosive.

Again, I hate to give anything away and not knowing who knows what about what in this movie, I'd rather not say anything at all except to say that so far it is the most "must see" movie I have seen so far this year. (I mean, It made number 1 on imdb.com's website of the top 250 movies OF ALL TIME!)

Okay, I will say a little bit...It was sad when she said ... to .... and then he said .... back and then he .... and then she .... and then they both ... (Is that enough?) :]

I was questioned by someone at my work as to which movie I liked better? The Dark Knight or Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk. Because I gave all three of them the "must see" comment. It's very difficult to put them in order because even though they are all comic book movies, I liked different elements in each of them. Iron Man had the best eye candy for me. (I'm sorry, but Christian Bale just doesn't do much for me...but Robert Downey, Jr. was looking YUMMY in Iron Man). But Iron Man compared to The Incredible Hulk, I already mentioned that there were a couple of dull moments for me in Iron Man that I didn't experience with Hulk. However, Hulk had a few cheesy CGI moments that, while really cool and really well done, The Dark Knight, you really didn't notice much CGI at all. You were so caught up in the moment that it almost seemed like you were RIGHT THERE with him. In fact, there were a couple of top of the building scenes that made me a little uneasy as the director is putting you in the person's place who is falling. (I'm not fond of heights and REALLY not fond of falling...especially the upclose scenes.)

So as a comic book movie, it rocked! As a "normal" movie, it rocked! As an action movie, it rocked! As a drama, it rocked! And as a creepy suspense crime thriller, it rocked! As a musical or a comedy drama, not so much. But that's okay. You can't watch just comedy-dramas the rest of your life. There are a few scenes that might be a little too morbid for the very young but otherwise, excellent for all ages.

One that definitely needs to be seen on the big screen...and more than once. :]

Let me know what you thought of it and we can discuss. Do you think it deserves the #1 spot of all time on imdb? Was it really THAT great of a movie? Or was there some kind of conspiracy theory at play as a publicity stunt?

I thought it was a great movie but you have to be in the mood for it. You have to take it for what it is. A dark, suspense thriller, action crime drama with a tiny bit of romance and a very tiny bit of comedy along the way. When I buy it on dvd, I will definitely see it a few more times (before letting my friends borrow it) but if I'm in the mood for a happy, uplifting musical, I'm obviously gonna pass this one by.

Bottom line: It's the most talked about movie and the highest rated ever, so you'd be a fool not to see it to at the bare minimum find out what you've been missing, but also you would kick yourself for missing the chance to have the full theater experience.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Stepbrothers

2008-07-25T01:19:00.003-06:00

Saw the midnite advanced screening of Stepbrothers tonite.

Basic plot: divorced man with 39 year old son living at home meets divorced woman with 40 year old son living at home and turns what would be a one night stand into instant bond and a quick marriage and the now stepbrothers are territorial and refuse to get along but then discover that they have too much in common to remain enemies, so they become best friends and since they are such simpleminded fools, they get into a lot of trouble together.

Most of the movie was pretty funny. There were a few hilarious bits and a few really stupid bits and the nudity they decided to use was a bit...um...disturbing is a good word. Overall it was entertaining throughout, but I'm torn on whether to recommend seeing it at the theater or just waiting til it comes out on dvd. Reason is because it's a GREAT movie to have that full "theater experience" with but since there are no special effects making it big screen requirable (heh, is that even a word?), as long as you can wait another few months, it might be better to wait until you can buy it and that way you can see it over and over again for just that one price.

That said, a lot of the funny scenes were shown in the trailer, but probably the best parts were the shock scenes...both verbal and visual...and the younger brother was such a douchebag that you were just itching to see him get some kind of comeuppance.

All of the songs were...entertaining. Can't decide which I liked better. The car song or the stage song, but both had the entire theater erupting in laughter and oddly enough they were also performed pretty well.

I don't want to give too much away, but one of my favorite scenes in the trailer, I thought they weren't going to show because it felt like they had already passed that point of being able to add it, but where it ended up being, it made it that much better and that much funnier.

All of the characters were likeable but I really enjoyed the scenes with Denise, Alice, and Cinnamon (shown separately) the best. Hopefully there will be a ton of deleted scenes with these characters in them since they didn't really have that much screen time.

The only bad thing I can think of about this movie is that it is forgettable. Every scene was enjoyable and entertaining and either funny or touching (whichever they are wanting you to feel at that moment) but it doesn't stick with you after the credits roll and you have left the theater. So I will recommend seeing this movie, but just make sure that you have already seen the following movies (at the theater) first: The Dark Knight (review to follow tomorrow), Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D, and Wanted.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that when the redband trailer started for Pineapple Express, there were QUITE a few people in the theater clapping and whooping, so I get the feeling that THAT midnite show will be a crowded house.

Bottom line: If you're in the mood to see some side splitting scenes of funniness that you may not have seen done before, sprinkled with a few scenes of gross jokes and lots of shocking utterances, and provided you are not easily offended by the vulgarity, then this is your movie. Just don't expect it to be another Superbad and you will enjoy it more.

Also, don't forget to stay after the credits. The very, very end was just a tiny blip that wasn't that big of a deal, but right after the credits start rolling there is another scene that IS worth staying in your seat for. And, once again, I was the only one in the theater that got to see it. And there were about 100 or so people that were there for the movie. Too bad. Their loss. (When ARE these people going to learn?)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D

2008-07-11T01:28:00.002-06:00

Just got back from seeing Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3-D at the midnite advanced screening. Since I am still significantly behind at work, I will try to keep this as short and sweet as I am capable of doing so that I can get going.

If you recall my review of Beowulf 3-D, I had counted how many times were almost having a heart attack moments and I think it was 7. This entire movie was filled with these moments! The ones that stick out in my mind the most are the bug at the very beginning (I had to actually close my eyes it freaked me out so bad), all of the ocean scenes (I jumped when the angler fish came at me) and the t-rex scenes (which were very plentiful...you would have expected just one or two almost getting eaten scenes, but this thing kept coming and you really couldn't imagine how they were going to get away from it!)

Might I suggest NOT getting popcorn for this movie (I bought a small and I think I ate 2 kernels...the rest of the time I was so enthralled in the movie that I wasn't even missing the mindless motion of hand to mouth), but you will definitely need some kind of beverage...something about adrenaline pumping thru you seems to dehydrate you or something. Maybe that's just me.

Anyway, so the main story is that Trevor, who is a scientist, is in charge of watching his nephew, Sean, for 10 days. When Sean's mom drops him off, she has a box of her late husband, Matt's, things and Trevor comes across Matt's copy of Jules Vernes' book, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and it is marked with all kinds of weird symbols and diagrams. Apparently, Matt believes that this book was based on fact and according to the conditions of the earth at this very moment, it is the same conditions that existed when the book's story took place, so Trevor decides to take the same journey that his brother did...with Sean in tow. Their search for the man that was working with Matt, brings them to the man's daughter, Hannah, who is a mountain guide and helps them on their way and long story short, the thin rock gives underneath them and they end up in the center of the earth, where things that were long extinct on the surface are alive and well in this beautiful new environment.

Gorgeous photography, excellent graphics and effects, so many wonderful and amazing things to look at and experience, and a terrific storyline! Unlike Beowulf, I would see this movie even if it wasn't in 3-D, but I am so glad that it was. It was just breathtaking! I will most definitely be seeing this one again tonight!

On a personal note, Hellboy 2 was also showing a midnite sneak preview and the theater I went to had hundreds of people there, but only 6 or so were watching the Journey movie. I'm sure Hellboy will end up being good (I will review that this evening) but I would have thought that everyone would have jumped at the chance to see this revolutionary action adventure flick. Nothing extra after the credits, but the credits, themselves, are in 3-D that you don't really notice towards the end until you see the flare floating behind them. From the supercool opening credits to the very, very end, this movie was extremely satisfying! AND...they sorta set it up for a possible new adventure, which would definitely be something to look forward to if it is anything like this one.

Let me know what you thought of it. It hasn't been getting the best of reviews, but *I* plan on seeing it at least 2 more times before it leaves theaters.

Bottom line: If you are a fan of either 3-D movies or science-fiction adventure, you would like this movie and if you enjoy both, you would be a fool to miss it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Wanted

2008-06-27T03:57:00.003-06:00

One word could describe this movie: exhilarating

I saw Wanted at the midnite sneak preview and even though quite a few of the best scenes had teaser snippets in the trailer, there were still lots to come that just took your breath away. And there was even a scene in the trailer that wasn't in the movie, so I anticipate quite a few deleted scenes on the dvd when it comes out.

As far as the action, it had by far, the BEST car chase scenes I have seen! Sure, a lot of them were pretty unbelievable, but the way they were shot, they looked genuine and as you are watching, you find that your jaw drops several times. And the several scenes with trains were awesome, too!

Basic plot: Wesley, an accounting manager, thinks that his life means nothing (he hates his boss, his co-worker is screwing his girlfriend, he is your basic doormat) until he finds out that the father who left him when he was 7 days old, was one of the best assassins and since his death, Wesley has been asked to join this special organization that his father was part of. Since it is in his blood, he is able to "curve a bullet" that only a select few are able to do, and his training begins. From that point on, the action and mystery as to who all of these new people are, are non-stop.

There are a few scenes that get a little weird and confusing like with the binary code explanation; and the looms and rats are pretty frequent that are a bit odd for the storyline. (Can't really explain them further because that would constitute as a spoiler, which I don't like to do.)

But all in all, great action scenes that you more than likely have NOT seen before, great storyline, heart-pounding suspense, likeable characters, complete closure ending (I like those), and this is probably the best I have ever seen Angelina Jolie. Normally I don't think she's much to look at, but she looks REALLY good in this movie.

I will be seeing this movie again in the theater and once it comes out on dvd, it's definitely one to buy on Blu-Ray.

Let me know what you thought of it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Happening

2008-06-13T21:55:00.003-06:00

I just saw The Happening tonight. And it DIDN'T suck! No, really, it didn't.

After the atrocious trailers that they kept showing time and time again before seemingly EVERY movie in the past several months, I was determined that this movie was going to be awful. Maybe it was because the trailer misinterpreted what the story was. When I saw the people flying off the buildings, I could have sworn this was going to be a movie about aliens...or where people get yanked up into the sky and disappear (what was that movie? The Missing, I think?) but when you find out that they are not flying through the air, they are actually jumping off the building killing themselves, at least that makes more sense. But you don't know that by watching the trailer. In fact, you don't even know it until after you see the sudden downpour of bodies hitting the pavement. I think if I would have understood that part better, I might not have been dreading seeing this movie. And ask anyone I have talked to about it and they will tell you that I said I only wanted to see The Happening so that I could get past the wonderment of how stupid the storyline was going to be and so that I could tell others how avoidable it was so they could save their money. (I wish someone would have told me how horrible The Village was before I wasted my time watching THAT awful hunk of mess...building and building to a scare and then nothing. Man, was I pissed!) And, in fact, I had every intention of using my free movie ticket for it so that I could say that at least I didn't spend any money on it. Alas, the free movie ticket is only good on movies that have been out in theaters at least two weeks. (Didn't know that.) So I paid my $ 9.25, used my free popcorn ticket and bought a frozen coke and figured I'd just enjoy my snacks while the movie attempted to entertain me.

The theater was quite packed which was surprising since I figured everyone would be there to see The Incredible Hulk. This was a much older crowd, so perhaps these folks already saw that movie either last night like I did or earlier in the evening. (I worked late tonight, so there were a few showings of Hulk that they could have already seen.)

Anyway, the movie starts out in Central Park where lots of people are just walking around the park. Some jogging, some just enjoying the day and all of a sudden you see them all stop moving and then one girl totally out of the blue, takes a hairpin from her neatly made up bun and shoves it into her own neck. Then one by one, everyone starts killing themselves.

Interesting start.

Next you are seeing a classroom where Mark Wahlberg (normally one of my favorites - not so much in this one) is a science teacher who is having a class discussion regarding people's opinions on why and how bees would suddenly disappear and what the effects would be on the world. A few comments were made bantering back and forth between teacher and not-paying-attention student that get laughs, so at least we're off to a good start. And then the principal shows up to excuse the teacher from the classroom and you find out that all of the teachers have been gathered to talk about this new terrorist attack that is sweeping the northeastern region of the US. School has now been canceled and everyone is told to leave the area. As the last shot, you see written on the blackboard that if bees disappeared completely, humans would only have four years before becoming extinct.

Getting very, very interesting now.

So a few scenes go by and you meet various characters along the way. One really stupid scene involving a cell phone ringing and the girl trying to decide whether or not to answer it...it was just laughable when it probably wasn't supposed to be. Then again, there were quite a few laughs that probably weren't meant to be laughed at.

In the meantime, people go to their homes, pack up their stuff and then head to the train station and they're on their way to Pittsburgh (I think that's the correct city - doesn't really matter ... they're just needing to get away from where they are now before this unknown airborne thing gets ahold of them) and before they reach their destination, the train stops in a remote town because all communication has been lost (that horrible line from the trailer doesn't need my repeating it here). Theories are now in place regarding what might be causing this attack and who/what is behind it and the really creepy thing is that based on how they describe this thing, it really COULD happen. Might be a tad far-fetched, but given enough scientific documentation, I really believe it could one day be a very real threat. I don't want to go into more than that because I don't want to be the one to spoil the story.

There's more boring dialogue and some pretty dumb scenes where people are basically running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to find shelter ... somewhere and then there are a few good hot dog jokes (that got whoops of laughter from the audience) and then just when you're convinced it's gonna be a dull movie, the first REALLY great scene comes at you and you don't know where it came from but your heart has now leapt into your throat and a gasp escapes from your mouth and you're not sure if you yelped or if that was the person sitting next to you.

There were about 4 or 5 really good OH MY GOD scenes that the one mentioned above had me jumping out of my seat. (I assure you, that is not a typical occurrence.) Again, don't want to give specifics because it's best experienced first hand when no knowledge of what it coming is there. (I'm sure you could find it blasted everywhere on the imdb spoiler sections though if you REALLY want to know.)

So the acting was horrible, but you knew that just by watching the trailer. Mark does not do well with the surprised emotion. He pretty much had that deer in the headlights look pasted on his face the entire movie. And Zooey who played his estranged wife....oh, my... she was just awful. I'm sorry my FPOTP, I know you love her, but her acting was horrible. She was pretty much zombie girl the entire movie and while, yes, she was very pretty, it was difficult to care if she survived or not because after you learn about her secret, you wonder if you even like her anymore. There wasn't much chemistry between the main characters yet you still kinda rooted for them to at least get back together before the end credits rolled.

I absolutely HATED the ending. I wish I could comment on why I hated it, but that in itself would be a spoiler. Let's just say that I sincerely hope there is an alternate ending or two on the dvd.

I guess I'm undecided on whether to recommend this movie or not. It definitely gets points for shocking me literally out of my seat and there were a lot of in your face type creepy scenes and the basic plot was pretty good, so that right there I think is worth the price of the ticket. BUT this one doesn't contain anything superspecial that requires a big screen to see it, so maybe it would be best to wait til it comes out on dvd. Or, if it happens to be at the dollar show then that might be a good time to see it. For those of you who work with me, I do plan on buying the dvd, so you may borrow it after I see it again, but at this time, I don't think I need to see it again in the theater.

Bottom line? Watchable. Enjoyable. But would be best enjoyed as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 flick or at least watched with someone you can do your own MST3K commentary with. (Hey, at least it wasn't horrible like The Village.)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Incredible Hulk

2008-06-13T01:40:00.002-06:00

Saw this at the midnite show tonight. As much as I raved about Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk was actually better! Granted, that doesn't lessen Iron Man at all and in fact, I think it would be a great idea to make it a double feature. I think I might just do that Saturday.

I was never into the tv show but I knew enough about the plot to understand what was going on. The nice thing, though, was the first 2 or 3 minutes (as the intro credits are rolling), they catch you up in case you had never even heard of The Incredible Hulk before. Since I don't remember the tv program, I am the wrong person to tell you how closely they resembled each other as far as plot. And don't even think about asking me if it was like the comic book. The only comic books I was ever into were either Archie, The Pink Panther, and then much later...the adult stuff.

From the second the movie started until the very end, the action was superb, the dramatic elements were intense, there was a touch of romance as well, and even when there was a slow spot, it was purely to inform, so there honestly were no boring parts I could find. And, I am quite happy to say that even with it being over two hours long, I did NOT fall asleep. I caught every pulse pounding moment.

Acting was top notch, great chemistry between Liv and Edward, (Damn, he looked hot!), good CGI effects, great action sequences (I LOVED all of the rootop scenes!), great storyline, and kick ASS ending!

This is one to see again and again. But I definitely think that you need to have the full theater experience with this, so don't be a cheapskate and wait til the dvd comes out. Go see it right away. Help make it a better opening weekend than Spiderman. Because it was better than Spiderman. (Yeah, you heard me. It was BETTER than Spiderman.)

One tiny thing of not much importance to the film, but just kinda interesting, I thought....when you go to the theater and the coming attractions are getting ready to start, the curtain normally starts to close. Maybe it was just the theater I was in, but for this flick, the curtain opened to its full capacity and there was one scene in the movie that showed the location and the words at the bottom of the screen were actually NOT on the screen, but BELOW the screen. The picture took up THAT much space! Pretty cool, huh? :]

Go see it and come back and tell me what you thought. I challenge you to say any other comic book movie was as great as this one.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Flying With Smut

2008-05-14T18:51:00.003-06:00

(I needed a quick break from working.)

I will be on vacation next week on a cruise to Alaska (on The Pacific Princess...The LOOOVVVE BOAT!) and this will be the first time in many, many years that I will be subjected to the new airport rules and regulations. I dutifully looked up all of the things that you are not allowed to carry, along with the ones that you are, but I could not for the life of me find ANYTHING that said whether or not you could bring smut on the plane!

The only reference I have is from Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (EXCELLENT movie, btw - yeah, I know, I still need to review it ::sigh:: I'm trying to get everything caught up...) where Kumar starts shoving mags called Vagina in his knapsack and then decides that he doesn't want to take the chance of them getting taken away from him, so he just jacks himself off to them before they leave. (That is not a necessity for me.)

So, is there anyone out there that can shed some light on this subject? I have Googled several different compilations of "airport porn", "can you bring porn on a flight", "flying with porn" (of which THIS one gave me what I thought would be a nice hit, but it ended up being the story of a terrorist smuggling a bomb on the plane and thinking that if he had porn with him that they would just assume that he was an American and let him go by. (Yeah, whatever.)

It's not like I'm wanting to bring a vibrator with me or anything. First of all, I am going on the trip with my parents and meeting up with some of their friends. I won't have a room all to myself, so THAT would certainly never happen! Plus, I would be absolutely mortified if it ended up looking like a potential bomb threat or something and it was taken out and/or handled and/or taken away from me (those things are not cheap, you know). I lost a very good pair of handcuffs that way, and I'm not risking anymore good sex toys.

I was simply wanting to bring some reading material with me - now that I will FINALLY have some time to myself to read. Not having to worry about housework or job work, I would be able to catch up on some mags. I have probably 3 Maxims (my favorite mag - not just for men, but for people with short attention spans - that would be me :]) that I haven't gotten to yet. But I also have a Penthouse Variations that is still in the wrapper because I don't like to open a new one without having read the older ones first. I recently renewed my subscription to that and I'm still on my first issue.

I don't want either of these titles confiscated from me, but there is nothing on the web that I can find that says what titles are allowed and what titles are not. I'm not very good at the confrontation thing with authority, so I can't see myself saying "but it doesn't say that it's on the 'don't bring' list!" as they are taking it away.

I have to get back to work now so I'm not leaving a big mess for anyone helping out my customers while I am gone, but if anyone knows if there are rules against porn on airplanes or in airports, could you please post a comment or a link or something, so I don't make a mistake?

One weird thing I read was that you shouldn't be wearing ANY metal at all on your person. This rules out jeans, belts, anything with a zipper, coins (duh), body piercings (no worry there), and underwire bras. That last one freaked me out a little because, I'm sorry, but when your boobs are big and not man-made big, you kinda need to wear a wire bra...otherwise you're just hanging out all over the place and unless the girls are tucked into a tank top, it's just not attractive. Now, according to what is allowed, you ARE allowed to have gel filled bras. Interesting. That means that before, gel filled bras were NOT allowed? I would have loved to have seen the reaction of the woman who was told that the gel filled bra in her suitcase would have to be taken away from her! NOW we're talking big bucks! (Heh, maybe I should bring one of mine with me in my suitcase and see what happens...) I have simply decided my plane attire will consist of sweat pants, a fleece shirt, slip on shoes and a swimsuit underneath. Presto, no metals and no wire bra needed. :]

Maybe when I get back, I will post a picture or two of what I am predicting to be the most gorgeous scenery I have ever laid eyes on up close and personal....provided I can figure out how to add a picture, that is.

(Really going now. Good thing I type fast....)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Speed Racer

2008-05-09T11:18:00.003-06:00

I saw the midnight advanced screening of Speed Racer last night.

First off, let me say that I was never a huge fan of the cartoon. I never understood what the big deal was about the storyline and that monkey and brat that were always hanging around just really got on my nerves. Maybe it was just the voices of them that were annoying. Plus, later in life as I came across those adult cartoon movies...you know the ones where everyone looks like a Speed Racer character...it just got a bit disturbing for me to try to get into the cartoon show again as I kept waiting for Trixie to disrobe and give Speed a happy...which obviously never happens.

Anyway, that said, I saw the trailer for this movie months ago and it looked like it was going to be really cool. Except for the obvious 70's feel to it with the hairstyles and clothes, it looked like something I could really enjoy.

I'm sure everyone out there knows the Speed Racer story, so there's no point in my saying anything about what this movie is about, so I will just tell you what I liked and didn't like about what I saw last night.

Definitely, the coolest part was all of the different brilliant colors and special effects. As I do with every movie I see at the theater, I watched thru the end credits and sure enough Cafe FX and Industrial Light & Magic did all of the special effects for the movie. I have come to the conclusion that this combo makes for the best movies out there. They did The Mist and Iron Man and both of those had excellent effects. This movie was just visually stunning! From the very first opening scene showing the WB logo to the very end where the credits are flashing from yellow to green to blue back to yellow, it's all just a fantastical watch...regardless of if you are actually following the story or not. :]

The characters I wasn't too familiar with, so I'm not sure if it was ever explained in the cartoon who Racer X was and how he came to be. I was having trouble following that, since they didn't explain in the movie WHY Racer X concealed his identity. (Perhaps someone wants to share that with me sometime, so that I am not completely clueless.)

Trixie was cute and she and Speed made for an adorable couple. I especially enjoyed the scene they shared at the end and the commentary by his kid brother preceding it.

Probably the only thing I didn't like was ChimChim. I am not a monkey fan. I do not think that all of those dozens of commercials that the big corporations spend millions of dollars on and show during the SuperBowl every year with the monkeys are at all cute or funny. And I don't see the big laugh behind a monkey jumping off a couch to "hide" when someone comes into the room. Sorry, I just don't get it. So there were lots and LOTS of scenes that revolved around ChimChim's antics that had the entire theater erupting in laughter (minus one, of course - me). And I wasn't too fond of the kid brother, either. I wouldn't have thought it was cute to find my kid brother had tagged along unknowingly in the back (trunk?!) of my car as I was getting ready to make out with my significant other. The little shit would have gotten a spanking if I had anything to say about it. Plus...the trunk??

Okay, so it's just a movie. But those specific scenes were annoying for me and apparently stuck with me. :]

The racing scenes, although, a bit confusing and hard to keep track of who was where and doing what, were really cool!

It was a bit boring in a few spots, but all in all a great movie! Highly recommended and except for the pirahna scenes which were a tad graphic in concept, completely kid-safe.

Nothing super spectacular at the end credits like an additional scene. But if you're a huge monkey fan, you would get to see ChimChim jumping around acting goofy for quite a bit of the end credits. Pretty rockin' song at the end, though, so it was worth hanging around for. I will definitely be downloading that song.

Definitely needs to be seen in the theater and I might even go see it again. Hate to admit, but my mind wasn't 100% focused - being that it was midnight and I still had work on my mind - so I'm sure there were a few things here and there that I saw but just didn't fully comprehend at the time.

So after you see it (and you know you will!), let me know what you thought.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - What Happens In Vegas

2008-05-03T23:34:00.003-06:00

There was an advanced screening of What Happens In Vegas tonight. So of course I had to go.

Basic story is boy meets girl in Las Vegas, both get drunk and end up getting married and the next day they both realize it was a mistake and agree to go separate ways but then one last quarter in the slot machine wins them 3 million dollars. So now they can't get divorced because the judge decides that too many people get married on a whim and marriage is supposed to be for better or worse, so he forces them to stay married for 6 months, with weekly marriage counseling, and then if it was proved that they gave it their best in the marriage and still wanted to get divorced they will meet back up in court, will have their divorce and split the 3 million.

Totally predictable storyline where they each try to drive the other crazy (she takes forever in the bathroom so he takes the bathroom door off, she tries to get him to cheat so she invites a bunch of sluts over for a party, etc.), but it was really FUN ride! Lots of laughs. Typical stuff for the most part, but a few surprises along the way. I especially enjoyed the "trick" Joy could do with the champagne bottle. That was cool!

Cameron Diaz (Joy) and Ashton Kutcher (Jack) had really great chemistry together and you genuinely were rooting for them to figure out how perfect they are for each other and you are anxious for them to get together in the end, but at the same time you are enjoying watching them make each other's life hell by being the most annoying person possible.

In the beginning of the movie, she gets dumped by her fiancee and he gets fired by his own dad, so they're both feeling each other's pain and end up finding they have a lot in common by the end of the movie.

Probably not required to see on the big screen, but it was very enjoyable. Not a single boring moment and there were a few really heartfelt scenes. The best audience would be the kind that enjoy the goofball type of comedy. Unfortunately there was no nudity but lots of eye candy for both of the sexes and I heard quite a few of the guys whooping up the laughter, so I think it would be enjoyable for both the women AND the men.

I dunno. It wasn't the kind of comedy that was over the top great where I need to see it again right now, but I will definitely buy it as soon as it comes out on dvd and I can see myself watching it again.

Oh, and once again, I was the only one left in the theater after all the credits were finished rolling where there was another little blip. This one wasn't super funny but it provided a chuckle and it's one more reason why I insist on waiting out the movie to get my money's worth. And those 40 or 50 other people that left before that scene will be kicking themselves that they didn't have the patience to wait those five extra minutes. Oh well. Too bad for them. I have no sympathy for these people. You pay almost $10 for a ticket and you don't watch every single minute shown on the screen and then find out later you missed something? You have no one to blame but yourself.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Iron Man

2008-05-01T22:05:00.003-06:00

First, my apologies for no posts in quite a long time. I have still been seeing all of the movies, I have just been too lazy to post. I have no excuses and will try to get everything caught up this weekend - which will probably end up being to the tune of 20 or so movie reviews.

Anyway, I saw Iron Man tonight. While I thought the trailers made the movie look excellent, I still had in the back of my mind that this was going to be a dumb movie.

Guess what? I thought it was an excellent movie! It was a tad long (a little over 2 hours) but I don't see where they could have shaved anything off. The story was pretty involved and I believe every scene was necessary. Probably the only place I could think of shaving time off would be the time spent where he was in the air or the time it took to assemble the suit.

So the basic plot is a robotics genius (graduated top of his class from MIT) is now the head of a missle manufacturing plant and due to being captured by baddies in Afghanistan and barely surviving, he creates a robotic suit of armor in order to eliminate the bad guys who have taken over his missles and discredited his good name. Come to find out, his own company sold the missles to the Afghanistan group and now he has to figure out who in his company has changed sides and is selling missles to the enemy.

By far the coolest part was all of the gadgets throughout. He is, afterall, a robotics genius, so he is surrounded by nifty things like a "helper" who can extinguish fires (one of my favorite scenes, actually). He also has some super hot cars and and awesome house (built on the top of a cliff).

The story, itself, showing him building not one but two Iron Man skins was really neat and his computers that did the work were pretty impressive, too. I'm sure the REAL robotics geniuses in the world who see this movie will see flaws, but I liked it. It was entertaining, had some pretty good action scenes, pretty cool aerial photography, a few scenes of suspenseful moments. and Robert Downey, Jr. was SMOKIN HOT! (feel free to refer to my Charlie Bartlett review...still lookin' damn fine!) I would highly recommend Iron Man!

This next comment is directed to my fpotp (IF he's reading this, that is)...honey, you probably won't like Iron Man....the action sequences and special effects were similar to Transformers. And since *I* thought Transformers was awesome and *you* thought Transformers sucked (of which I still have trouble understanding why you didn't like it), I can't really picture you liking this movie. Except I do think you'd like all the gadgets and gizmos - who knows...might even give you ideas.

One note...and I cannot stress this enough...if/when you go see this movie (and I do believe it needs to be seen in the theater) make sure to stay until the VERY VERY VERY end of the movie. Yes, I mean you will need to sit through those excrutiatingly long credits. Because AFTER they all roll, there is another little half a minute blip that sets it up for a sequel and there is a special surprise guest star who isn't in any other part of the movie.

No, I'm NOT going to tell you who it was or what the scene was about. You will just have to see it for yourself. Except for a few violent scenes and a couple of insinuated sex scenes, there really isn't anything bad in it. Just your typical comic book action flick type of stuff, so I think it would be okay to see as a family film.

Until that last little blip after the credits, I thought the ending was pretty weak. In fact, I think I may have even (silently of course) booed. Because the way the movie kept building and building and then that last line being delivered as flat as it was and then boom the movie's over, it was a major letdown. But I will bet you that those other 50 people that were in the theater watching the movie who left before the credits finished will be kicking themselves for not having stayed after they find out that there was an extra bit of the film that they missed. Because when I left the theater, I was the only one there.

See? Sometimes it DOES pay to be the nerd watching thru all the credits. I figure, I want to get my money's worth, so dammit I'm seeing every last little word on the screen up until you hear the film projector screech (which is a VERY scary noise when it's late at night, btw.)

More reviews this weekend. Go see Iron Man!

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Sex Dream

2008-03-18T22:00:00.003-06:00

Welcome back to another Sex Talk Wednesday. Today's topic is sex dreams. More specifically sex dreams of certain people in your life.

The other night I had THE hottest sex dream that involved one of my fellow co-workers. Two very interesting things about this, though. 1. This guy is very sweet, but I have zero sexual attraction to him and would never consciously think of him this way at all. Honest. 2. In this dream he was tender and romantic. Granted, I wouldn't know how he is in bed, but at work, he does not seem the type to be tender and romantic, so that was a seemingly complete personality change.

Know that this was JUST a dream. Nothing would ever EVER come of it. (And ::ahem;: no one would ever cum from it.) But my dreams are very vivid and upon waking from this one, it almost felt like it really happened. And I must admit, that I see him in a different light now. Still not sexually attracted to him (and I am certainly the farthest from his type) but now as I look at him my mind occasionally drifts to certain parts of the dream where he is kissing me gently on the lips while his hands are lightly touching my baby soft skin from my face down my neck to each breast and then down my stomach. And his body is on top of mine, entering me slowly while gently blowing in my ear and then kissing my neck. And then his hands are stroking up each thigh as I wrap my legs around him so I can feel every inch of him inside me.

but I digress...

Unfortunately, I woke up from the dream before either of us finished. But it was hot enough that I woke up with soaked panties and a newfound curiosity of him. Wondering if maybe there would be a twinkle in his for me the next time we spoke. As if, perhaps, he had known that I had just dreamed of him in the most deliciously naughty way possible.

So that brings me to the question of - do guys want to know when a girl has had a sex dream about them? And is a factor, in knowing, a matter of if the guy is attracted to the girl or not? In other words, even though this guy is zero interested in me in that way, would he still want to know that in my mind, just hours before seeing him, our bodies were intertwined and we were whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears?

In my case, it won't matter because I have no intention of revealing who it was I had the dream of to anyone - including (and especially) him. Dream experts would probably say something like I dreamed of him in an intimate situation because I crave his acceptance and approval and that by letting go with him, I was showing him that I do not always have to be the guarded person when it comes to my feelings that I always am with him. I guess that could be the case. But our paths don't really cross all that often, so seeking his approval isn't exactly my main focus.

So it remains only a dream and as good as the dream was (I certainly wouldn't mind having a repeat of it), I have no desire to even attempt to try to make it a reality. Even if we were both attracted to each other (which, neither is attracted to the other - I am quite positive of this), as I have learned in the past, some dreams are much better off as dreams since some that come to life end up as disappointments.

Have you had sex dreams of a coworker? If so, did you tell that person? And was it awkward when you did? Was the reaction to the news received favorably? Do tell...

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Horton Hears A Who

2008-03-16T06:28:00.002-06:00

As expected, Jim Carrey's performance for Horton Hears A Who (as Horton, the elephant) was overdone. But despite that, the film was still cute.

The jungle is run by a kangaroo (Carol Burnett) and everyone bows to her existence. When Horton thinks that he hears something on a speck that is on a clover, he starts talking to it and finds a friend in a Who (mayor of Whoville - Steve Carell) and quite a bit of the conversations revolve around proving that each other exists. The kangaroo tells Horton that he is crazy and that of course there is no one living on a speck on a clover. He is instructed to get rid of the clover and when he refuses (standing up to the kangaroo is a huge thing) she searches out someone who will destroy the clover.

The movie had its slow parts, but the overall theme of the story coming from the famous Dr. Suess makes for a nice family flick.

The best part of the movie was the mayor's wife, who provided 99% of the comedy in my opinion. She stuck by her husband even when she thought he was going crazy, but the dry wit she had was the best. I wish there would have been more scenes with the Whos and less of Horton fumbling around fighting off the monkeys and the vulture. And they could have completely cut out the part showing Horton starring in his own comic book...that was unnecessary to the story and the movie fell flat for me at that point, only picking up when they showed Whoville again.

Kids will like it and possibly the young at heart, but adults with little patience for animated antics might get bored, so at this time I cannot recommend this movie.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Doomsday

2008-03-14T01:23:00.002-06:00

Just got back from an advanced screening of Doomsday. I figured it wouldn't be that great because I had really only seen the one trailer for it and hadn't read anything about it, either. I knew that it starred the bad girl hot chick from Nip/Tuck and that it had something to do with a virus and a quarantine of a town and that was about it. So I really wasn't expecting much. And the only reason I decided on this movie instead of Never Back Down for the midnight showing was because the other one would fit better with the movie schedule for tomorrow's lineup.

Basic plot is that on April 3, 2008, a deadly virus they named The Reaper Virus swept thru Glasgow, Scotland and in no time flat, everyone was infected in that area. It was a flesh eating virus that was airborne, so the government decided to build a 30 foot wall all around Scotland and the people inside the wall were promised that help was coming for them. And they even numbered on the outsides of houses how many members were in each so that the medical teams would be aware. However, there was never intention on helping them, just quarantining them so that no one else would get infected.

A woman with her young daughter in her arms was able to get thru and asked if the soldiers could take her daughter and protect her, so they did and the woman was left to die with the rest of the infected.

Flash forward to the present, 2035 (don't remember the month, sorry) and you find out that the young girl that was rescued is now an elite member of a military team who are sent into the quarantined area because the government has been monitoring inside the wall for all these years and within the last three years, there have been signs of survivors. Now that The Reaper Virus has shown up in another area, they need to figure out what allowed these people to survive so that they can create a vaccine and/or a cure for this deadly virus. However, once inside, the team finds a group of people who have turned cannibal and do not take kindly to intruders, so finding the cure is not going to be the easy task that they thought it would be and seeing as there are hundreds of the survivors and only a handful in the team, getting out alive is going to be the biggest challenge.

This was actually an excellent movie! I can see how some of the reviewers said it was similar to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome because the survivors inside the wall had similar attire to those characters and they had gladiator type setup for everyone's entertainment where there is a fight to the death - armed bad guy vs. unarmed good guy. There was a really cool car chase and lots of action....and QUITE a bit of carnage; so, suggestion, if I may...while this may seem like a great popcorn movie, unless you have a REALLY strong stomach, I would advise against eating any food while viewing this flick. I have a pretty strong stomach (what with growing up around ER and CSI and Nip/Tuck - and all those stupid Faces of Death movies that my then-boyfriend wanted to watch) and I ended up setting the bag aside after only having had a handful or two of popcorn. I would recommend, though, a drink and several pieces of chewing gum. So that when the intense scenes pop up, you're not left with a dry mouth.

There were a few "yeah, RIGHT!" scenes like why would anyone even attempt to try to climb up a 30 foot metal wall? And why, if after being secluded for decades with nothing to eat except each other, would there be ANY fat people?

I should probably also mention that the main lead, Rhona Mitra, could easily pass for Victoria Beckham...yep, dead ringer...even has that crappy long hair on one side, shorter hair on the other...what is UP with that style, anyway? And there is a little nod to Bionic Woman, but I don't want to spoil anything, so you'll have to find that out for yourself when you see it. And you will definitely want to see it.

Not for the little ones...not even one scene. Between the flesh rotting corpses, the up close and personal gunshot/arrow attacks, the disturbing torture scenes, and all of the excessive language, I can't think of one single 5 minute moment that would be appropriate for the youngsters.

This one you really do need to see on the big screen. It will be enjoyable when it comes out on dvd, also, but for maximum enjoyment, see it at the theater first.

Great acting, lots of surprises around every corner, lots of eye candy, and a very satisfying ending.

If you like sci-fi action thrillers with a great plot and twists everywhere, this is the movie for you.

Vixy :]

Wednesday Sex Talk - The One Night Stand

2008-03-11T04:02:00.006-06:00

When I was not quite 21, I had only been with 2 guys. Not that it was a bad thing, but always having been the inquisitive child, I was wanting to know what other guys were like out there. I was already into the online circuit (this was before internet was popular, but that will be another post) and I was the best at "hotchatting". I could get even the fastest two-handed typist guy typing with one hand in just a couple of minutes. And I was quite proud of that.

One guy I was exchanging emails with wanted to meet me in person. Turns out, he only lived a few streets away and apparently one night as he was driving by my street, he had peered into my bedroom window while I was working out and liked what he saw. I suppose I should have thought that was creepy, but I found it to be flattering.

I didn't have much experience with dating, so I wasn't really sure what to say, so I invited him over to play pool...after my parents went to bed, of course. My parents sleep like logs, so as long as he came over after they were asleep, the pool balls clinking together on the pool table downstairs would never wake them, so we would be in the clear.

He came over about 10:30pm and again, it was a little awkward for me, not knowing what this guy would be expecting...we had exchanged some pretty racy emails and now here we were standing together face to face.

He was a cutie. Dark brown hair and blueish-greenish eyes. He had just a hint of a 5-o'clock shadow. (I love a guy with a little bit of a fuzzy goin' on, but not too crazy about the full on beard.) He was smiling as he was looking me up and down. As with most guys, his gaze was mainly focusing on my ample cleavage.

I took his hand and led him downstairs so he could pick out which poolstick to use. He had nice hands. I could tell by the way he was holding my hand that he would have a gentle touch and I couldn't wait to feel them touching every inch of my body.

I warned him that I was pretty good at pool, and was teasing him that we should make the stakes interesting. He had the idea of playing strip pool. Well, I had been playing pool every night for the past month, several games each night - against my dad, and he said I was getting much better, so I figured I was up for the challenge.

It had been a warm summer evening and we were both wearing shorts with socks and tennis shoes. He was wearing a t-shirt and I was wearing a tank top with an unbuttoned short sleeve shirt over it. I was fully aware that anytime I would have to lean over the table to make my shot, he would be able to have the perfect view of my pink lace bra...and not that I needed for him to be distracted, but it was a bonus.

So he racked the balls and I fixed them around in my signature "little man" pose (picture the Jumpman character from the 80's computer game) so that when I made the first shot to break the balls, it would be aiming right between the "little man"'s legs. (Always makes the guy I'm playing against cringe.) Two balls went into the pockets with that one shot - both solids - so obviously I was solids and he was stripes....and he had to take off two articles of clothing already. I was nice, though, I allowed him to take off just his shoes.

By this point, the shy girl had gone away and I was in full tease mode now. I realized that it was actually a little unfair that I had two more articles of clothing on that he didn't when we started. So I took off the button down shirt and then told him that I still had one more piece of clothing on that needed to be removed to make it fair. He looked a little confused but the smirk slowly appeared as he saw me reaching behind my back to unhook my bra. I guess he thought he was gonna get a full look-see, but I seductively pulled down each strap and then pulled it out from the front of my tank top a la Flashdance. My tank top was pretty fitted, so my hard nipples made their appearance thru the thin material and by the look on his face, I knew he wanted to touch them. So with that, I went around to the other side of the table to make sure that he understood that we had to finish the game first before anything was going to happen. Feeling cocky, I decided to raise the stakes and I also took off my shoes and socks, which meant that if he even got one ball in, I'd have to take off my shorts. I wasn't worried, though.

Poor guy didn't even have a chance. He talked a good game, but he couldn't get any of his balls in any of the pockets to save his life, so it kept being my turn and I was clearing off the table. In no time flat he was down to wearing just his light blue boxers and I had one more ball on the table...the 8-ball. One of his striped guys was blocking my shot and he smiled...he must have been thinking that I was going to knock one in for him and he'd finally get to see me take off an article of clothing...I decided to show off a bit and I did a move my dad taught me....after calling "8-ball, corner pocket", I made the cue ball hop over his ball, and without touching anything else on the table, the cue ball kissed the 8-ball, knocking it into the corner pocket that I had called.

He was a bit flabbergasted. Never thought I'd be able to make that shot. "Now I get to claim my reward," I told him.

I hopped up onto the pool table, took off my tank top and motioned him towards me. As soon as he was standing in front of me, I wrapped my legs around his waist and locked him tight and then kissed him hard. He was just as hot as I was as I could tell from the hardness in his boxers pressing against me. A great kiss really gets my juices flowing, as does a guy running his fingers thru my hair....he was doing both and I was in absolute ecstasy.

I unlocked my legs long enough for him to pull off my shorts. He laid me back on the pool table and climbed on top of me. I pulled my thong aside and by this time, his cock was jutting out of the opening in his boxers. I started slowly stroking his member. No more waiting. I wanted him inside me, NOW! I wrapped my legs around his waist again as he easily slid into me with one thrust. I locked him tight around me so that he couldn't move. I didn't want his hot, throbbing manhood leaving my sopping pussy just yet.

After several seconds of kegeling his cock while I was grinding my hips against his, I knew I had teased him long enough and I loosened my grip so he could start pumping slowly in and out of me, gradually getting faster. The whole time, our tongues were dancing in each other's mouths, and our hands were exploring each other's bodies. He was licking and nibbling on my nipples and I was running my hands over his well-formed biceps. Each thrust into me was more focused than the last and everything he was doing felt so wonderful.

I'm sure at least 15 minutes went by of our bodies grinding together in perfect harmony. He was quietly grunting and I was softly moaning in his ear and lightly scratching his back with my fingernails which was obviously turning him on as he pumped into me harder and faster. And then I could tell by the look on his face and the fact that his eyes had just rolled back into his head that he was about ready to cum. I knew this was an inopportune time to tell him, but I wasn't on any kind of birth control (he didn't need to know that part) and couldn't risk him releasing his load inside of me, so I told him I wanted him to cum on my stomach....so that I could rub his love juices all over my body. That was how I maintained my baby soft skin, after all. He seemed okay with that so with one final thrust, he pulled out of me and let loose of what seemed like a gallon of cum all over my chest. I slowly rubbed it in on my stomach and my breasts, enjoying the slick feel of it. He appeared to enjoy himself as he watched my hands move over each breast and back down to my stomach. And then I even rubbed some in my hair (for a few blonde streaks).

A few more minutes went by and we regained our composures and got off the pool table. Still a little dazed from what had just happened, we both got dressed and we quietly snuck back up the stairs and then at the front door I kissed him goodnight and then thanked him for a good game.

At this point, the shy girl had come back and I told him that I really didn't believe in one night stands, and I wanted to see him again, if only for one more night. He laughed, kissed me on the forehead and then I watched him step off the porch, get into his car, pull out of the driveway, and drive down the street out of my sight.

I figured I would never see him again...

Movie Review - College Road Trip

2008-03-09T05:55:00.003-06:00

This was a cute family movie. Definitely geared more towards the younger girls who are huge Raven fans. And she was actually one of the executive producers of the movie, so that earns her a bit more respect in my eyes.

But...before I give you my review....this being a Disney movie, ever since seeing the trailer, I kept having the same thing go thru my head....Why was it okay for Raven to have huge boobs, but Lindsay's had to be reduced for HER Disney movie?

For those of you who do not know, when Lindsay Lohan starred in Herbie Fully Loaded, she not only had to have her clothes digitally altered (they added in turtlenecks to her v-neck sweaters), but they also digitally reduced her breasts by one full cup size. Reasoning? Disney believed that Lindsay would be a bad role model for the younger girls if she was that developed.

Now we have College Road Trip where the two characters are approximately the same age, but not only are Raven's clothes not altered but they are skin tight on her and it seems like every scene they're right there in your face. And she is about three times bigger than Lindsay. So why is it okay for her and it wasn't for Lindsay? I'm thinking it's because she was the executive producer on the film? Either that or because (so far) Raven hasn't been portrayed as a party girl, she is still wholesome in girls' eyes?

Excuse me for that mild vent, but it was VERY distracting to the movie. Also, that whole "you go, girl!" type stuff....just doesn't float my boat. So that was distracting, too. But maybe I still have a bad taste in my mouth ever since her Cosby days. I still remember the interview that she had when they asked her (at age 6, I believe) what she wanted for her birthday and she said she wanted a Lamborghini. (I don't have much tolerance for spoiled brats.) And wasn't she the one who started the "talk to the hand" smart aleck attitude that kids have now? Even if she didn't start it, I think she's an awful role model for young girls.

Otherwise, personal feelings aside, the story is pretty good. A girl whose future college choice (Northwestern) has been pre-determined since her birth by her father (police chief) who doesn't want her being too far from home. But her choice is much farther away (Georgetown) and she has been given the chance to interview for a spot so her father insists on driving her there and they have many adventures along the way when the car ends up having problems and they not only have to find a place to stay the night but also have to find alternate transportation to get her there on time.

It's probably pretty obvious that I would have enjoyed this movie more if there was a different actress other than Raven playing the main part which is why I have a hard time figuring out if I should recommend this movie or not. Never been a fan of the double dutch bus song, but she did a great job with the version she did and the rest of the music in the movie was good, too. There were also lots of laughs and the family connections seemed genuine.

Someone, anyone, please argue Raven's performance and general personality and young girl influence and maybe I will change my opinion of her. As it stands, as enjoyable as the story was and the rest of the performances were, I do not plan on seeing this movie again.

However, if you don't have a problem with any of the above complaints I have made against her, you will probably enjoy the movie.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - 10,000 BC

2008-03-09T05:18:00.003-06:00

Just goes to show you that you can NOT judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a movie by its trailer.

I would squeal with delight over the trailers for this movie when I was at the theater. The scenery was lush, the effects looked really cool and the SOUND was AWESOME! The wooly mammoths stomping around shaking the ground and everything. I was SO looking forward to seeing this movie! I bought a dvd that had a trailer for 10,000 BC and it just didn't have the excitement to it that it had in the theater, but I didn't think anything of it, figuring my surround sound speakers just didn't have the OOMPHF that the ones had at the theater.

I think maybe next time I'll pay attention to that. This movie was okay, but it was definitely not the excitement I was looking forward to.

I'm not going to be able to get as in-depth with the names and such because frankly I don't care enough to look them all up, so bear with me as I fumble thru that part.

So you have this large tribe of people that kinda reminded me of the Clan Of The Cave Bear except that they spoke English in 10,000 BC. A blue eyed girl shows up as her family has been killed by the four-legged demons (men on horses) and the tribe takes her in believing that she is the one that will save them. They name her Evolet. (Which is funny that I remember the trailer where the guy is screaming a name and I could have sworn he was screaming "Camelot!" and when seeing the movie I realized he was screaming "Evolet!")

Anyway, one particular tribe member, D'Leh (delay), falls for Evolet and promises his neverending love and devotion (when they're, like, 10 years old, come on...) but to later "win" her, he has to be possessor of the "white sword" which is a bunch of bones made into a sword that you earn by showing great courage and bravery against a beast.

The four-legged demons show up and take a bunch of tribe people, including Evolet, as slaves and D'Leh heads up the search party to go find her (them) and rescue her (them). During their journey, they run into saber-toothed tigers, and big man-eating birds.

Again, this movie was eh. The scenery WAS pretty cool. But there were too many laughable parts. The old woman who was more or less an empath who would start shaking uncontrollably when she would hone in on a particular person's emotions and as they were being hurt, she would start bleeding....and then the part where the tiger was struggling, stuck in the water with a huge tree limb keeping him from getting out, and D'Leh decided he would free the tiger and he says to the animal "Okay, I'm going to free you. Don't you eat me!"

Sadly, I think I was the only one in the packed theater that laughed at that line.

Maybe if I would have had low expectations, I would have been pleasantly surprised that it was so good, but I expected it to be awesome and was therefore majorly disappointed in what I saw.

The special effects ended up being not as great as they looked in the theater. The people who did this movie should have used the folks that did the special effects for The Golden Compass, because those polar bears were great and if the tigers would have looked that cool, I would have been more sold on their realness.

And the wooly mammoths....looked like real elephants walking around with glued on hair and plastic horns shoved into their mouths. It was pretty neat, though, when one of them was getting ready to step on one of the tribesmen. (I was rooting for the elephant/wooly mammoth to squash the guy.)

Sorry, but I can't recommend this one. Maybe when it comes out on dvd, it will be worth a rental but otherwise it's probably avoidable. But, actually, it would be better to see on the big screen, so if you have a dollar show movie theater and this one is showing, that would probably be the best for viewing.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Bank Job

2008-03-09T04:53:00.003-06:00

The trailer for The Bank Job looked interesting enough, but didn't look to be anything spectacular, so I made this one first on my list of the night just in case I was bored to tears, it wouldn't be so late that I would be worried about falling asleep. But this was actually a GREAT movie and ended up being the best of the three I saw.

Let's start with the first few scenes of the movie...MAJOR taboo sex scenes for the first half hour. And this was a hard R, but I'm betting (hoping) there are some pretty juicy deleted scenes that will appear on the dvd. The first scene showed a three-way, but all the good stuff was kinda blurred out in the background. You could figure out what each of the players was doing, and it was still pretty hot!

Basic storyline: Martine is given the assignment of stealing some blackmail photographs of the above incidents that are in a safe deposit box. She offers a bank robbery job to her old-time friend, Terry who gets together a crew of his friends and they organize everything perfectly. The only thing the big boss wants is the photos and they are allowed to keep everything else they come across. After breaking into over 200 boxes, it all seems to have gone along smoothly until they find out that there were a few more blackmail items that they didn't realize they stole that the owners are willing to kill for to get back, so now they're in the middle of two sets of bad guys and they're all trying to figure out who is more important to return the items to.

Excellent story. Based on true events, but not sure how much might have been created just for the movie. And the disclaimer at the end says that the names have been changed to protect the guilty. Either way, entertaining throughout!

I have only seen one other movie with Jason Statham (Crank) so I haven't been too familiar with his work except that it seemed most of his roles were just as the heavy handed action hero who just grunts a lot. He had a lot of really good acting scenes in The Bank Job. He still did the action hero bit towards the end, lending a hand to help kick some ass, but all in all his scenes were very well played. And damn, he looked HOT! (Is he this good looking in all of his films?) I think I own a few more movies that he's in that I just haven't seen yet, but I might be giving those a look-see this weekend.

Saffron Burrows (the hot brunette chick in Deep Blue Sea) did a good job, too. Wasn't sure if I wanted her to break up the marriage between Terry and his wife because he had great chemistry with both female leads and they both had good reasons to be with him.

Great story, great acting, a few disturbing torture scenes, good-looking main characters, hot sex scenes, and a satisfying ending. Oh, and the naked people were actually worth looking at, too. (That has not always been the case.)

I will probably see this again next weekend. Maybe even before then.

I highly recommended this one!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Penelope

2008-03-01T17:08:00.003-06:00

Back in the day, a LONG long time ago, a man of royalty fell in love with a lowly servant girl. Obviously, he couldn't marry her, so he broke her heart and the girl's mother who was a witch, put on a curse on his entire family line stating that the first born girl would have a face of a pig and the only way to break the curse would be for a blue blood to declare true love for her.

As luck would have it, only sons were born for the longest time until finally when Penelope came along. Penelope's parents were highly publicized in everything they did, but once Penelope was born with a pig's face, as the curse had warned would happen, they shielded her from everyone around and Penelope grew up having to be home schooled and having to make her own friends out of dolls and puppets.

When she became of age, it was her mother's insistence to marry off her daughter as soon as possible so that they could end this curse once and for all. From behind a one-way mirror, Penelope would talk to and interrogate potential husbands to be and then when she felt it was time and that this one might be the one, she would show herself to him, but each time as soon as the boy would see her face, he would run out the door away from her.

Finally frustrated enough, Penelope runs away from home and with a scarf around her face to hide her pig snout, she sees the world for the first time and enjoys interacting with other people. She passes out from having one too many beers and in order to give her CPR, someone takes off the scarf and now everyone knows that she has a pig's snout and while people are afraid of her at first, she becomes accepted for who she is and learns that it's not what you look like on the outside, it's who you are on the inside.

This was a sweet fairytale story. Because of the cynical person that I am, not for a second would I ever think that this kind of love could really exist. But it's a cute story nonetheless. Christina Ricci does a really great job playing Penelope and the whole time you're looking at her face, you're really just staring at her beautiful brown eyes and her gorgeous long flowing hair and peaches and cream complexion. Her pig snout is nothing super hideous and she's not too fat or too skinny, so except for that one tiny flaw on her face, she is quite the looker and would be quite the catch for any guy. And that would just be for the shallow ones. She also has a great personality and a confidence about her that would surely attract any man.

I will definitely be buying the dvd when it comes out. Very good story. Satisfying ending. Laughs throughout, tears sprinkled here and there. Oh, and there is one scary scene. Especially if you're not ready for it, it will take you aback. A few of the teenagers sitting in the back actually screamed. Otherwise, it could be a cute family film with a nice moral at the end....if you love yourself for who you are, your true love will find you.

And not that it has any bearing on my opinion of the movie, but Penelope was produced by Reese Witherspoon....and she plays a bit part as the friend and I think she does a great job. I tend to think that Reese is also an over the top actor, but she was toned down for this part and her performance was enjoyable.

Probably not for everyone's taste, but if you like the ugly duckling/swan stories like I do, then this should be added to your list of must-sees.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Semi-Pro

2008-03-01T16:41:00.003-06:00

Jackie Moon is player, coach, and owner of the Flint, Michigan Tropics basketball team. He has just learned that 4 of the basketball teams will be able to join the NBA. His team was not originally one of the ones picked, so he requests that since the season isn't over yet, that the best 4 teams end up getting that prestigious honor. The Tropics aren't that great of a team but they have hot, scantily clad cheerleaders, and record making crooner Jackie Moon, so nothing else really matters to them.

Jackie wants his team to become part of the NBA, but they just haven't been getting the wins they need, so he trades their washing machine for Monix, who has an NBA ring from the previous team he was on, and Monix will get everyone in shape and ready for the big time.

One of the other requirements is that The Tropics need to have a minimum of 2,000 fans in the stands for each game, so Jackie resorts to all types of weird gimmicks like free corndog night (where everyone gets a free corndog if they score more than 125 points) and Jackie wrestles a bear in order to get their required attendance.

I thought this movie would not be that great because I am not that big of a fan of Will Ferrell's works. I think he's an over the top actor and his attitude in real life reminds me a lot of Chevy Chase's....and my opinion of Chevy Chase is that he has been in a lot of really great funny movies, but in real life he comes off as a rude, uncaring, egostical jerk.

But I liked Semi-Pro. The comic bits were ones I hadn't seen before. More times than not, I was laughing instead of groaning, which has been a pleasant change from the majority of comedies I've seen lately. I really enjoyed Woody Harrelson's performance as Monix. My favorite scenes were all the ones with him and his ex-girlfriend played by Maura Tierney. After leaving him because he put basketball before their relationship, she is now the wife of his number 1 fan and the hubby thinks it is SO cool that his favorite player has a "crush" on his wife. All of those scenes were side splitters.

Probably not necessary to see on the big screen, but the gun shot scared the crap out of me and the bear growling was pretty impressive, too. Otherwise, it could wait for a viewing on dvd. I expect there will be a ton of deleted scenes when it comes out on dvd because this is the type of movie that seems like they have a hard time trimming it down to an hour and a half.

After seeing Semi-Pro, I'm still not a huge Will fan, but even if you aren't either, go see it for Woody. And then let me know if you thought the funny stuff outweighed the stupid stuff.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Other Boleyn Girl

2008-03-01T15:47:00.002-06:00

As previously mentioned, I have been itching to see this movie for several months. There was no possible way that I wasn't going to like it. Remember, though, I am not well versed with historical happenings, so while I knew how it was going to end, I did not know of all the things that were to happen in between. I am fairly certain I was the only one to be finding out for the first time because this was apparently the movie to see for the over 60 crowd.

The basic storyline is the King of England wants a son, but his wife, Catherine has had miscarriage after miscarriage and now can no longer bear any children. The king would never leave his wife, but still wants an heir so he is searching for a mistress to bed and give him one.

Anne and Mary are sisters (Anne being older) and are as different as night and day. Anne wants to marry a rich, powerful man; whereas Mary wants to wed for happiness and true love. Mary is soon married to a commoner so Anne is told that she needs to catch the king's eye and after she bears his son, she will be promised to marry a duke. Instead, though, the king fancies Mary and soon requests that she and her husband join her at Court to be servants for the Queen. This will make it easier for him to lay with Mary, of which he requests of her and she of course complies. No one would dare turn down the king's advances. Soon, Mary finds that she is pregnant, but there is a problem with the pregnancy, so she is put on strict bed rest and now the king will be seeking another's warm body to be in his bed.

Anne comes back into the picture - sent to "amuse" the king - and she puts on the tease hot and heavy and the king insists on being with her, but Anne is not as compliant as her sister, Mary, and turns away the king's advances unless he agrees to marry her. Once he does, only then will she sleep with him. She does not want to give birth to a bastard child, which is what it would be if the two of them were not married. King Henry had no intention of ever leaving his queen but he wants Anne and Anne has promised him a son, so the two of them work out a way to remove Catherine from the picture.

It's probably best I stop there, because otherwise I'm going to end up spelling out the entire story. And even though it's based on historical facts, I honestly don't know which things have been embellished for drama sake or if every single moment is true. Either way, it was an excellent movie and I would most definitely see it again...should it ever show at my theater.

The movie was well over 2 hours long, but I wasn't a clock watcher at all during it. It was intense and mesmerizing from beginning to end. All of the performances were good and the character developments were nice for the dummies in the audience (me) who didn't know squat about the king and the queen and the concubines and the concubine wannabe's, etc.

I was a little disappointed, though, that for all of the steamy scenes shown in the trailer, and all of the sex that everyone was having during the storyline that there was not a single nude body shown. Sorry, guys, but you'll have to check out Natalie and Scarlett in another film if you're wanting to see skin, cuz you won't see it in this one. And for the girls, Jim Sturgess (George - brother of Anne and Mary) and Eric Bana (King Henry) were quite the luscious distractions from all that female cleavage all over the place. And still, not even a well-toned bare butt shown. It was only a PG-13 movie, after all. Hopefully there will be an unrated version when it comes out on dvd. Because, really, there is no reason to remake it completely because of those missing scenes, but I feel it would have been a better movie had they been included. (I can picture you purists out there saying that just because there's a sex scene, doesn't mean that everything has to be shown...well, in this particular case, yeah, it does.) :] :]

Hey, that brings me to a question...during that time period, the dresses that the girls wore were so incredibly long and loose fitting (except for the boobs all being tied with corsets) with all those layers, how would the guys have ever known if the girls were really porkers underneath all that? Because you can't just go by the face and if the rest of the body is covered until you get them to the bedroom, how would they know? Or did fat people just not exist back then? Just curious.

Anyway, I highly recommend this movie whether you want to compare it with history, watch a lot of good acting, or just settle in for a well-told story. I truly believe this is a must-see for the big screen. Between the horses clopping across the ground and the dramatic face slapping scene (of which quite a few people in the audience clapped) as well as other intense moments, it will be better enjoyed in this setting. Plus, I predict this one will be out in theaters for a long run and if you're one to wait for it to come out on dvd before you see it, you might be waiting til December.

Tell me what you thought of it.

Vixy :]

I Was Unfaithful

2008-02-29T23:37:00.002-06:00

I spent my movie night at a different theater this evening. You see, ever since November, I have been seeing trailers for The Other Boleyn Girl and I have been salivating over seeing it. It was coming out this weekend and for some stupid reason, MY theater didn't have it listed!!! They currently have re-releases of both There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men as well as the continued showings of Juno, which, granted, are all VERY good movies, but come on....give the new ones a chance to get out there!

So I felt it absolutely necessary to give my money to a competitor tonight. Yes, I found myself at one of the larger multiplexes. It had its good points and its bad. I will do the unusual and list the bad first...

Bad points (compared to my "regular" theater):
* They didn't know me.
* They charged me full price for a refill on an icee. MY theater, when you buy a large icee for $5, you can either get a refill of soda for free, or a refill of an icee for 50 cents. This place charges you $ 4.75 for a large icee which is nowhere near as large of a cup and is not plastic...so cup breakthrus are potential and there is no such thing as a refill. And the cup says all over it "icee" so there is no pretending that you get a free soda refill.
* The cinnamon pretzel was hard and stale.
* The popcorn was actually pretty good, but I ordered it with extra butter layered and the guy dumped half of the contents back into the bin and handed me the bag and pointed to where the butter was on the island (with the ketchup and the mustard) so I had to figure out how to distribute the butter evenly and then I guess I was supposed to go back up there to get the rest of the popcorn to fill the large (because when you buy a large, you do actually get unlimited free refills of that) but the lines were starting to get long and I really didn't feel like having to deal with the pissed off people that I would be cutting in front of to get the rest of my money's worth of the popcorn, so I basically paid for a large but got a small.
* Besides getting a bit gypped on the price of the popcorn, it also made me sick. Thank goodness there was a 45 minute gap between movies because most of it was spent in the bathroom. I will not be getting popcorn from there again.
* I guess because they do a lot of business, the bags of popcorn are already fixed and it's kinda like going to McDonald's when you order a hamburger and it's already sitting there....and the nachos are prepackaged in boxes as well...just waiting for someone to order. I guess I like that personal touch of the fresh popcorn being made every half hour or so and the helper scooping it out and fluffing it into the bag...oh, and putting the butter on it for me...layering it as they put in the additional popcorn. (Hey, if I wanted to put the butter on the popcorn, myself, I would stay home and pop it. I'm paying for a product and a service, and I shouldn't have to figure out the mystical combination of getting the stupid butter machine to dispense the butter so that it comes out evenly.)
* When I first got to the window, everyone ahead of me didn't seem to have a problem getting their tickets, but when it was MY turn, all of a sudden the guy's speaker isn't working very well and he claims he can't hear me, so I'm having to shout to him that I want to see three movies and as I am telling him each one slowly, I am having to repeat myself. And then after telling him the movies, I asked for a brochure and am pointing to it (as it is inside the glass, which I cannot reach thru glass), telling him that I would like to become a member of their particular movie club and after three times of pointing and shouting and he finally understands what I'm saying, I have now felt completely stupid. I honestly did not think that I was that difficult to understand, but perhaps I should have written down what I wanted on index cards to give to him and that would have made it much simpler.
* I got inside and handed the girl my tickets and she ripped all at the same time and then proceeded to tell me that Penelope would be playing in theater 13 and was to my left. Well, honey, that was all well and good, but THAT particular movie was the third one of the evening and wouldn't do me much good until I had seen the other two first. This place only had one more movie room than my normal but because of the way they were split up, I actually got lost trying to figure where in the hell I was supposed to go.
* The locks on the bathroom stalls would not all stay latched properly, probably because of all the slamming that people do when they close the doors....why they feel this is necessary is beyond me, but as I was doing my thing, every single time someone else would go into another stall, she would slam the door and then slam it again and I guess it wasn't quite latching, so she would slam it again and the whole time all of this slamming was going on, the walls on MY stall were shaking and the latch on my stall was slowly inching to the left so that another couple of slams, it would have come unlatched completely and then I had this fear of the door swinging open and being put on display.
* This theater, while close to my work, is not that close to my house, so it made the late night drive home a much longer journey.
* At my theater, the last time I was there, the manager waited on me at the concession stand and recognizing me as a regular, he not only gave me a FREE icee refill (of which I would have been more than happy to pay the 50 cents) but he ALSO refilled my small popcorn bag for free......only the large popcorn is where you get the free refills. Not gonna get that kind of treatment at one of those huge multiplex places until you've been there a hundred times or more.
* And the last thing...my movie experiences tonight will not count towards my rewards at my theater, so I guess that puts it into the category of "wasted money". ? (Good thing all three movies I saw were excellent and worth seeing again.)

Okay, now the good things about this other theater:
* There were a LOT of seats in every movie room. And it seemed that they were all huge. (My theater depends on which room you're in as to how many seats there are.)
* I'm pretty sure that every single room had the digital sound (again, mine doesn't have that for all showings.)
* All of the seats are flat and when you put the arm rest up, you can actually put your legs up or lie down (or, if you're with someone, you can cuddle together) and you're really comfortable.
* I could be mistaken, but I think the screens were all bigger. I still sat in my normal three rows from the front, but it was a more "in your face" kind of thing for me at this one.
* The trailers were different versions than I had seen of both Get Smart and Sex And The City. Both movies I had already decided that I really want to see, but the trailers at this moviehouse were MUCH better.
* Instead of 15 minutes of previews, it's 20 minutes.
* They dim the lights completely as the first trailer is starting. Mine they wait until the actual movie is starting before it gets that dark...I think it's more enjoyable to watch the trailers when it's pitch black.
* I only had bundle myself in my coat this time for extra comfort...not because I was freezing to death like I always do in my theater.
* Because the rooms are so huge, sitting in the third row from the front, I don't have to worry about hearing the bratty teenagers laughing and/or making out in the back of the theater. Because I simply don't hear them unless I turn around and make a conscious effort to listen in.
* The bathrooms had paper towels. Oh, that was SO nice! I absolutely HATE those stupid hand dryer things. First of all, it takes FOREVER to get your hands dry, and then you're having to drip from the sink to the dryer - making the sink all wet - and because there are no paper towels, the sink tops are always wet everywhere, which means I have to put my coat and my purse on the floor if I don't want them to get wet while I am washing my hands.
* Parking was a lot nicer. I parked not directly in front of the theater, but in the side part of the parking lot and it still wasn't that far away when it was time for me to leave. My theater, sometimes it's about 50 paces to get to my parked car at the end of the evening. This one it was about 5.

Bottom line, though. Like most infidelities, it was a nice change, but it makes me appreciate what I already have. I am quite happy with my place and will only be going to this other as the exception, not the rule. AND it is kinda nice when they know that I am there to see several movies at once and I don't get the shocked look or the disgusted "what? you have no life?" expression when I start rattling off all of the movies I am seeing for the evening. In fact, now, as I am standing at window, as soon as I say my first movie, whoever it is at the register patiently waits while I figure out the next movie title and time on my list of movies to watch because everyone there knows I will be viewing more than one.

Actual movie reviews for the evening will be done at a later time. I have an early day ahead of me and need to get a few hours of sleep.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - A First With K

2008-02-27T21:47:00.003-06:00

Believe it or not, I was the biggest prude in high school. I did not believe in sex before marriage. (No, really, I didn't.) And I always made that perfectly clear to any guy who was wanting to be my boyfriend. It seemed that everyone was coupling off and having sex, but I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved. I wanted it to be special and memorable.

The first guy I ever got physical with (I'll call him K) was a guy I had told a friend I had a major crush on. It seemed almost like out of a fairy tale that a few days later he had started paying attention to me in class and next thing I knew he was "asking me out". Granted, I was too young to date, but "going out" just meant hanging around each other and stuff like that.

The day he asked me out, he invited me to his house after school. I walked over with K to his house (which was 2 blocks from the school) and when we got there, the house was empty. Both of his parents worked late, so we would have the house to ourselves for the next several hours. I may not have been the sharpest crayon in the box, but I certainly knew what that twinkle in his eye meant.

He pulled me close to him, pressed his lips against mine hard and forced his tongue in my mouth. (My very first French kiss...) It was awful! I thought it was the grossest thing that had ever entered my mouth. His tongue was really slimey and he kept licking my teeth. Ew.

Not a great start.

But then he started exploring my body with his hands. He had very nice hands and his touching me felt really good and my body was tingling everywhere. I think the little angel that was supposed to be telling me that what I was doing was wrong had fallen asleep or something because I had no intention of asking him to stop. At the tender age of 15, I had quite the voluptuous shape and K was wanting to touch every inch of it. I was wearing my favorite flowered Chic jeans coupled with a tank top...both articles of clothing showing off my well proportioned shape. Just to be clear, I told him that my clothes would be staying on. He seemed to be okay with that.

I didn't know why at the time, but K told me that I should call my best friend and tell her where I was and who I was with so that I could show off. So I called her and while I was talking to her, K was right behind me feeling up my breasts, pinching my nipples, running his hands down my sides and over my hips and then (after seeing that I hadn't pushed his hands away yet) he put his hands between my legs and started rubbing my pussy thru my jeans. I was heavy breathing in no time and it made it difficult to talk to my friend, but K insisted that I keep talking to her while he was nuzzling my neck and continuing to rub my pussy. Well, obviously, I couldn't tell her what specifically he was doing to me, but I was wanting to give him my full attention, so I told her I needed to let her go and I would see her tomorrow at school. As soon as I hung up the phone, he stopped. Everything. No more nuzzling my neck, no more touching me anywhere, and no more trying to stick his icky tongue in my mouth.

I thought this was a bit weird (the angel must have woken up) but who was I to complain? The problem now was that I had missed the bus and hadn't really given it much thought as to how I would get home. Sure, I could walk home, but it was 3 mile trek and I had a heavy bag of school books with me. Plus, I hadn't checked in with my parents yet and they would both be home from work soon, wondering where the hell I was. (We didn't have cell phones back then.)

I called and left a message for my mom to come pick me up and then happily announced that K and I were "going out". She didn't need to know the details. And at the time, I didn't know that what I was doing was later going to label me a slut.

Anyway, my mom told me that later in the week I could invite K over and we could watch tv together. I was so excited because I wanted him to touch me that way again. I wanted to feel my body completely relax against his to the point of forgetting everyone else around us. So I wanted to make sure I was dressed appropriately for the easiest access possible.

I decided on a long, flowy white skirt with a matching cropped top and after making pleasantries with my parents, we went into the computer room so that I could show him the latest games that I had. (I kicked ass in both Space Taxi and Impossible Mission.) The chair in the computer room was a leftover kitchen chair and it was plenty roomy for two people to sit in it at the same time. So he sat on the edge of the chair and after hiking up my skirt a bit, I sat directly behind him. I referred to it as our motorcycle position.

This time, it was my turn to do the touching. He was wearing black pants and a crisp white, long sleeved shirt (he was looking VERY good!) and I started rubbing right above his knees and slowly worked my way up his thighs and then back down. And then rubbing the insides of his legs, I wasn't sure how far he would let me go. He stopped my hand right as I was getting to the creases between each leg. I guess he didn't want me touching him, afterall.

By this point, he was ready to go "talk" so we left the computer room and went into my bedroom and the rule was "no boys on the bed", so my thinking was it would be okay if we were on the floor. :] We were both sitting on the floor, a few feet apart when he leaned in to kiss me. It wasn't as bad of a kiss this time. I guess that meant this whole French kissing thing was starting to get fun. He started nuzzling my neck and was whispering how we could go to go to the same college and even stay in the same room. This weirded me out because 1. I had no clue where I was even going to go for college and 2. I wasn't sure this was the guy I wanted to be my first. There was just ... something ... about him that didn't feel right, but I couldn't explain it.

Now would probably be a good time to describe K. He was a few inches taller than I was. He had dark, curly hair, big brown eyes and the most mischevious smile I had ever seen before. I think he reminded me a lot of Gopher from The Love Boat, but the closest he resembled was Lee Curreri (of Fame and Crystal Heart). The thing about him that grabbed my attention was this outfit he would wear about once every two weeks....white pants and a white shirt....kinda Miami Vice style...he looked SO good in that outfit! Can't really explain it any further, but you'll just have to take my word for it that the outfit worked for him. And the funny thing is that once we started going out (and I told him that outfit drove me crazy) he never again wore that outfit.

Okay, so now that he has mentioned our going to the same college, I brought him back out of fantasy land and told him that I wasn't going to have sex with him because I wanted my first time to be with my husband. This shouldn't have been news to him because I had mentioned it a couple of times before, but I guess maybe he didn't think I was serious about it. I was dead serious. This was not a religion thing or a parents thing. It was MY wanting to wait until I was married.

After reminding him again of my beliefs and telling him that this was NOT my parents talking as he had insisted it was, he all of a sudden "remembered" that he needed to be home taking care of his younger brother. (Yeah, THAT was subtle.)

My dad offered to drive K home and I rode along and K and I both sat in the back seat. I tried to hold his hand but he pulled away and then didn't even look at me. The two mile drive to K's house was over in what seemed mere seconds and once we got there, K muttered a quick "see you at school tomorrow" and then he was out of the car in a flash.

The next day at school, he completely ignored me when he passed my locker and it was like I didn't even exist anymore.

Come to find out, he heard I had a crush on him and he made a bet with some of his friends that I would sleep with him. I guess once he realized I really wasn't going to have sex with him, he figured what was the point of going out with me anymore.

I figured I would just write him off as an experience. Remember the definition of experience....experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. How true with K. I was looking for someone to want to be with me and desire me and have fun with and he was just looking to win a bet.

It gets worse.

Same school. Same people. A few years later. His name comes up in conversation and I mention that I went out with him for a short while and that he was my very first REAL kiss. Apparently by this point, K is quite the popular fellow. Next day in class, I am curtly told that K not only was NOT my first kiss, but that he doesn't even know who I am.

So. Bottom line? Since K completely wrote me off, he doesn't get credit anymore for being my first boyfriend. That title proudly goes to my ex-husband who WAS my first and I DID wait until I was in love before we did the deed.

But that is a story for another time.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Vantage Point

2008-02-24T15:58:00.002-06:00

After reading all of the reviews and comments about Vantage Point, there really isn't much new I can say about it that hasn't already been said.

Simply put, this was an excellent movie, not to be missed. Definitely need to see on the big screen to appreciate the car chases and explosions.

Except for the tiny annoyance of the multiple cliff hangers that occur after each person's point of view has concluded, I really can't think of anything bad about this movie. Great acting, great action scenes, GREAT bad guys, great twists.

I do have to get on my soapbox just for a minute, though. I think I was the only one in the theater inwardly screaming "Get the EFF out of the street! Don't just stand there screaming! Move! Get out of the street!! Where the hell is this brat's mom?!? Someone get the brat out of the street!" The kid that was in the street was plenty old enough to know NOT to run into the street and then once there to just STAND THERE as a damned car is coming right at her. So, yeah, in this case, if she isn't going to know better than to not run into the middle of traffic, then I am asking, "where was the mom???" And then in a movie if the mom does reunite with the kid it's like a tearful "Oh, my poor baby! You could have gotten killed!" instead of (what it should be) "What in the HELL were you doing in the middle of the street?!? At ten years old, you are not a baby and you know better! You could have gotten someone killed!"

Please forgive my tiny outburst. I would be the person who has the doormat that says "dogs welcome, children must be on a leash" because I just don't understand how kids are allowed to get away with what they do nowadays, just running around being all rambunctious and the parents are nowhere in sight... (But that's a debate for another post.)

Go see Vantage Point on the big screen! You won't be disappointed!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Charlie Bartlett

2008-02-24T15:45:00.002-06:00

Charlie Bartlett has been compared to Juno as the best coming of age movie this year. I liked Charlie and Juno but I don't think they belong in the same category. Juno was more a comedy with bitlets of drama sprinkled in whereas Charlie was equally comedy and drama.

Charlie lives alone with his mother. His father is in jail and has been for quite some time now. Pretty much every private school has expelled Charlie, so his mom decided to enroll Charlie in public school for the first time. As you can probably figure out, Charlie is quite the fish out of water and he wants nothing more than to be popular, so he utilizes the shrink on call for his family to get various different types of medication and he sells it at school while providing free help sessions for those who just want to talk out their problems. All of this is going well for him until the principal makes the announcement that security cameras will be installed in the schools and everyone expects Charlie to lead the picket group, but how can he go head to head with the guy who is his girlfriend's father? And would it really be worth staying popular to just get kicked out of one more school?

Excellent movie! Great storyline. Nice that it wasn't the same ol' same ol' stuff. Reminded me a bit of Ferris Bueller and the girlfriend, Susan, was quite the looker...a bit like a young Rose McGowan with the ruby stained lips and the goth thing going.

And I probably shouldn't admit this, but except for the scary drunk scene, I found myself thinking just how tasty Robert Downey, Jr. was looking. DAMN he was fine!

Highly recommended, but not really necessary to see on the big screen. Unless you want to compare it to Juno side by side.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Witless Protection

2008-02-24T15:25:00.002-06:00

Witless Protection didn't 100% completely suck, so I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, there were a LOT more groans than laughs, but it had a heart to the storyline, so as much as I kept thinking how stupid Larry is, I couldn't help but root for him in the end.

Larry is in law enforcement in Mississippi and has a lot going for him. A houseful of pets (iguana, beaver, opposum, raccoons), lots of friends (majority of which are womanizing boozers), and a hot girlfriend who is completely loyal to him. However, despite all of these great things, Larry's lifelong dream is to join the FBI so he has purchased lots of video tapes to get in shape - even making his own exercise equipment out of a merry go round type system involving a broom and a toilet plunger. One day at the local diner where his girlfriend works, he sees a black Suburban and in these parts, the only people that drive that kind of car are bad guys, and he sees a woman who has obviously been kidnapped, so he rescues her and then come to find out, he has just abducted her from the FBI as she is part of the witness protection program. Larry is still convinced that he has rescued her as he goes thru a list of things that the real FBI would do that these guys have not done, so he has her on the run with him while he unravels the mystery of why she is in the witness protection program to begin with.

My opinion, you would have to be a hardcore Larry The Cable Guy fan to truly enjoy every moment of this movie. It had its funny parts, but there were too many groans and stupid one-liners to count, and SOOO many gross parts, so maybe that ages me that I just don't think bodily function jokes are that funny.

I can't recommend this one, but it was at least for the most part entertaining.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Persepolis

2008-02-24T14:55:00.002-06:00

Persepolis was not what I expected at all. But to be fair, the only thing I knew about it was that it was an animated art film. That was it.

I always have trouble "getting" history, politics, and religion and this movie focused heavily on all three so my review on this movie will not be what someone who does get it would be. And my apologies ahead of time for that. It was really slow at the start and I actually contemplated leaving the theater a few times within the first 30 minutes, but since I paid good money to see it, I wanted to at least leave the theater knowing that I saw the whole thing. It was very confusing for me (the history dunce), but all in all, it was a very good story.

The movie is set in Iran, a story of Marjane told in her words as she grows from a child to a woman while abiding by the rules that are put upon her. She is quite the outspoken character telling her (nun) teachers how everyone wanted "the Shah" to go away and now that everyone got their wishes, the world is actually a worse place to live with more people than ever being executed for not living by the rules.

Persepolis is animated, but is NOT for children. First of all, they would be bored out of their trees because it is 100% in French with English subtitles. Second, there are quite a few sexual references. And, third, there is a LOT of language. Even though the spoken language is French, if they are old enough to read, they will see that the curse words flow freely. And much of it is coming from Marjane as a child speaking to her elders...not really a good influence.

Not really sure what else to say about this movie without making myself sound stupid since I don't really know much about Iranian times then vs. now. Seems like it sucked for women regardless of time frame, so it makes me grateful to be a US citizen. It was pretty powerful even with the very little I knew going into it, so I can only guess that history buffs would probably enjoy it that much more because the events seemed to be fairly accurate and the dialogue was portrayed well. And it might even be based on a true story. Don't know. Don't really care. I go to movies to be entertained and informed....not to follow the origin of each screenplay.

The animation left a lot to be desired and based solely on that, I don't see it winning best animated movie over Ratatouille as some imdb'ers were saying it would. But this was a thinking movie as opposed to just watching a funny flick, so I really don't see it being fair that it would be in the same category.

Not necessary to watch on the big screen. I don't need to see it again anytime soon, but will definitely add it to my collection when it comes out on dvd.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Story Time - B/G/G

2008-02-19T22:35:00.005-06:00

The threesome was N's idea.

I shared everything with N that best friends share: clothes, music, boyfriends, books - you know, the typical stuff. But the one thing that I hadn't shared with her that she wanted was my body.

I love men to the point that I sometimes have trouble limiting myself to just one, but had never even entertained the idea of being with another woman until I met N. She, on the other hand, had a past relationship with another girl and since we had become such good friends, she was curious as to what it would be like to be with me. She told me that she wanted to taste me and although this was completely new territory for me, the thought did pique my interest. However, I was very shy and she figured that if I was with a guy I was comfortable with while she was exploring my body, it would put me more at ease.

So one night, the two of us went to a friend's house to get high (aka "relaxed). While the two of them were passing the joint back and forth, I politely refused taking a hit, but was still getting quite the buzz from the smoke billowing above us, so I was feeling pretty good. Being my first high, I wasn't quite sure what to do with the emotions I was having. It felt like every part of me was alive and I felt tingly all over.

On the drive back to my house, N was laughing at my inexperience since she was 6 years younger and had already tried every drug out there while I had never done any of them. She started explaining to me in her soft, soothing voice, that when you're high, the slightest touch feels extra wonderful. Even if it's just someone touching the tip of your nose, you feel it throughout your whole body. With that, she touched the bridge of my nose with her finger and slowly slid it down to the tip and she was right. It felt awesome! If her intent was to get me aroused, it was working.

As she continued touching my face in different places, she started talking about how we should have a threeway and before I knew it, we were trying to decide who the lucky guy would be.

At this point in time, I had two main men in my life...E and L. I lived with E but I had more passion for L. Unbeknownst to me at the time, she had already slept with L and that's probably why she suggested him first. I am very possessive when it comes to people and I didn't want to share L with her, so I suggested we offer it up to E. I had known E for over 7 years and he never mentioned a fantasy of being with two girls, so I didn't think he'd go for it, but she said she wanted to eat my pussy, and with the way I was feeling, who was I to turn her down?

It was going on 2am and E was sound asleep in bed when we crept into the room. N motioned for me to start kissing up his left leg as she started kissing up his right. I don't know if it was the dual kisses or our giggles that woke him up, but it took E several minutes to realize that what he was experiencing was real, and not a dream. He then pulled me up to him so he could suck on my tits. N started sucking on his cock and by the way he was now biting my nipples and groaning loudly, I knew he was having fun. And with all the tabooness happening around me, my pussy was sopping wet.

N took this to mean that I was finally relaxed and comfortable enough for her to find out what I really tasted like. And E was rock hard and ready to fuck N.

I moved to the top of the bed and was sitting up against the headboard while N positioned herself on her stomach with her head between my thighs and E mounted N from behind. She put one finger inside me and then lightly touched her tongue to make a circle around her finger. I had never before felt such pleasure wash over me. She then started lapping up my juices as quickly as they were gushing out of me. Her red hair was very soft as I was running my fingers through it. In the passion, I found myself coaxing her face closer to my pussy so that I could completely envelop her tongue inside me. All three of us were crying out in pleasure as E was pumping in and out of N's pussy and N was eating mine like there was no tomorrow.

The minutes flew by with seconds and a moment later, with one final thrust, E pulled out and came all over N's back. He left the room to get a warm washcloth to clean her up and I stopped N from devouring my pussy and I pulled her face up to mine. Our tongues danced in each others' mouths as I tasted my own juices and for the first time shared a kiss with another woman. Her kisses were softer than any I'd had with a man and to this day every kiss I receive, I compare to the one I shared with N.

E brought in the warm washcloth and he gently caressed each of our bodies with it until we were cleaned off. Then he lay down on the bed on his back and with N on one side and me on the other, we all fell asleep in each other's arms.

This was one night I was sure to remember.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Sex And The City

2008-02-13T06:35:00.005-06:00

Over the weekend, I finished watching the last season of Sex And The City. I think it's one of the few series out there that has really remained consistent with both content and characters. I haven't checked the Jump The Shark website yet to find out what others think, but it started out bold and continued to be thru to the last episode, yet it still had a heart and soul to it.

One of the discussions that always comes up is which character are you? There are many sites that offer quizzes, but I think this is the best one, so go take this quiz and then come back and share your results.

I think everyone always identifies with Carrie because she is the most middle of the road of all of them. Miranda was always the cynical one, Samantha the most outlandish, and Charlotte would probably be classified as a prude...even though, she wasn't, the exterior said she was.

I'm a mix between Charlotte and Samantha. Which, I do realize is an odd combination from one extreme to another, but when it comes to talking to guys, I am very shy and reserved. But once I get to know them and it's on my terms, I can be as out there as Samantha as far as what I am willing to do to please my man. That brings me back to the Charlotte side, though, because Charlotte is always a bit neglecting of her own pleasure and her first hookup was with a guy who was only concerned about himself. It was nice to see that she finally ended up with a man who cared about what SHE wanted and they both ended up bending a little to meet the others' needs, but not so much that they fell over. I guess you could say, instead of waiting for my Mr. Big, I'm waiting for my Mr. Harry....except I would not be willing to change my religious beliefs for any man, which would bring me back to the Samantha side. Samantha has a very hard time connecting sex and love and because she is afraid of getting hurt, she shows the sex part of her to pretty much anyone who wants to see it, but the love she shields from ever getting exposed since she knows her heart will get trampled on the moment she lets it show.

The reason I don't identify with Carrie is because the first thing you think of is her fashion sense...of which I have none. :] I wear what is comfortable and what I think is flattering for me. I don't give two rips about spending $ 400 for a pair of shoes. I think that's stupid. I'd rather be spending that money on dvd's and cd's....items that will last a helluva lot longer than a pair of shoes. Unfortunately, the self-centered part of her character is like me, but I am working on changing that.

Miranda was a workaholic which I can relate to that part, but for the longest time in the show, she was portrayed as a bit of a dyke. NOT ME AT ALL! I love my men and I try really hard NOT to be cynical about love. I've been there a few times in my life and hopefully have learned from my mistakes so I won't be travelling down those paths leading to the flames, but only time will tell.

So how'd you do on the quiz? And which one does it say you are? And which one do you THINK you are despite what the results tell you?

And just to keep the guys in the loop...those of you who know about the show and have seen an episode or two (whether it was forced or by your choice), which male character would you be/which female character are you most attracted to and why?

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Strange Wilderness

2008-02-11T05:15:00.000-06:00

Ugh. Where do I even start with this? Awful movie. Fool's Gold was more enjoyable and even that one I can't recommend.

Basic storyline: son inherits dad's show, Strange Wilderness, and tries to make it a great show again but with the rapidly declining ratings, it's going to take a super story to pull it out of the gutter. Bigfoot has supposedly been spotted so he takes his crew to go find this creature and film it.

I should have known by the long, drawn out "hayuck!" of the goofy shark in the trailer that the comedy wouldn't be to my taste, but I figured that would be the only horrible scene. Maybe I'm getting too high of a standard for comedies because the rest of the theater was erupting in laughter every few minutes where I was just inwardly groaning. I'm pretty sure this was the same crowd that was with me when I saw Meet The Spartans because it was a similar type of humor.

Sorry, but I just didn't think this was very funny.

Maybe I'm just burned out, but I think I'm turned off to comedies for awhile. I'm ready for a really good action-adventure (Jumper?) or a great scare me til I pee my pants (The Ruins?) or even just a nice tear-jerker (Definitely, Maybe?).

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Fool's Gold

2008-02-11T04:59:00.000-06:00

Tess and Finn married for the sex. The only other thing they have in common is treasure salvaging, which isn't enough for Tess, so she has filed for divorce to attempt to get her credit rating out of the toilet since Finn has become more or less a beach bum with zero smarts and zero dollars. On the day of their divorce, Finn finds the granddaddy of all treasures on the ocean floor and he thinks that with Tess's help to locate it, he can win her back.

I wanted so desperately to love this movie. Kate Hudson is one of my favorite actresses and How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is a movie I could see over and over again because she and Matthew had such great chemistry together...this was going to be another great movie.

But, unfortunately, Fool's Gold fell flat.

I'm not sure exactly what it was that made it an awful movie because the setup was good...nice looking people, lush scenery, good storyline, good acting. Okay, that was the part...the acting was not that great. The chemistry between the two of them really sucked. The best part about the movie was the character Gemma and she was so stupid that she made Jessica Simpson look like a Mensa member.

My best suggestion? Just watch the cute trailer and that's all you'll need.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

2008-02-11T04:36:00.000-06:00

Dr. Phil-wannabe, R.J. (Roscoe) Stevens has it pretty good. He has a successful talk show, a Survivor-winning fiancee with a rockin' body, and a wonderful son from a previous marriage. But it isn't until he visits his estranged relatives, and sees his life-long crush, that he realizes that all the money in the world can't bring you happiness if you don't have family values and if you are with the wrong person to share them with.

Best way I can describe this movie is it was a fun romp. There were happy moments and sad moments and the emotions didn't feel forced.

I did not realize the comedy would be as raunchy as it was, though, and a couple of the funny scenes were actually disturbing. I won't give away what they were, but they involved animals.

Of the newest comedies out now, go see this one first and chances are, you won't be disappointed.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Germophobes

2008-02-05T21:49:00.000-06:00

Today's topic is courtesy of my FPOTP (favorite person on the planet). First, let me state that even though my FPOTP is of the opposite sex, and is VERY easy on the eyes, there is no romantic link between us. Kind of a never has been never will be sorta thing. But I do love him as my definition for love is extreme respect, admiration, awe and the willingness to do anything for that person. I love him but am not IN love with him - huge difference. He is allowed to know anything he wants to know about me - I have zero secrets from him - and oftentimes knows me better than I know myself. (There are very few people that fall into this category, by the way.) I am fortunate to have him in my life and even more fortunate that I get to see him several times a week because seeing him and talking to him always brightens my day.

Anyway, I learned today that my FPOTP is a germaphobe! I usually have very little tolerance for germaphobes because I just don't see what the big deal is, so it caught me surprise when I found out and HE seemed surprised that it angered me. So let me plead my case and to all of you lurkers out there, let's make this a real debate and fight the for or against germaphobes.

To set the scene for you, there is a new flavor of soda out in limited edition quantities. I happened to get my hands on a case and not knowing if he would actually like it - and not wanting it to be wasted in case he didn't - I offered him the first sip out of the can and if he didn't like it, I would just finish it up, no biggie. He refused to let me do this because he thought it was gross that I would be drinking after him.

Now, let's rewind a bit...this is the same guy who would be more than happy to share his food with me and of course my not being a germaphobe, I had absolutely no problem taking that bite of pie after he had had some first - sometimes even using the very same fork. Yet, now, all of a sudden, he has an issue with it? I'm sorry, but I take personal offense to that. I can understand for the true germaphobe that maybe he wouldn't feel comfortable taking a bite of pie after *I* had taken a bite, but if I'm taking the bite after he has and he no longer has anything to do with it, what's the big deal? Seriously...?

So that got me thinking about sex. Granted, it doesn't take much to help move me along in the direction of thinking about that particular topic. :] Think about when you are pleasing your partner. And I mean REALLY pleasing...the down and dirty stuff where you're putting your tongue places that in the heat of the moment is just fine but thinking about it the next day makes you blush. Do you think THOSE people are germaphobes? They would be hypocrites if they were, don't you think?

And that also reminded me about a stand up comedian...I wanna say Chris Rock, but I don't remember...who said something to the effect of when you have a one night stand and that next morning you really need to brush your teeth but you don't dare use that person's toothbrush because it's just too gross. Yet that night before you were putting your mouth in the nastiest places with that person. And somehow that toothbrush, even though you could - duh - rinse it under the hot water for several minutes first, would never be allowed to come into contact with your mouth because it's just too icky even thinking about.

I really don't understand this thinking.

Especially when you have those guys out there who say about a super hot chick "I would drink her bathwater". Because I've heard quite a few guys say that phrase in my day. And I don't think it gets much grosser than THAT. And these are the guys that would be the first to say that they would never let someone drink after them...?

Are you getting yet why I felt insulted?

It's that whole issue of since I'm not classified as a hot chick, it would be gross to ever let my lips touch something his lips have touched first?

It's not like he was gonna pee in the soda or cum in the soda or anything. NOW we're talking gross. I may be known to be a little kinky, but I'm not THAT kinky. And it's not like I was gonna take his DNA off the can and use it towards weird voodoo rituals or anything. (Hmm...betcha didn't think of THAT one, didja?)

So I still don't see what the big deal would have been. If he was afraid of getting me sick because of some phantom cold, then that's sweet of him to be concerned, but wouldn't that still be MY choice? It's not like it would be equivalent to kissing him or anything because I wouldn't be giving it back to him for there to be any kind of saliva exchange. Then again, I don't feel that way about him, anyway, so kissing him isn't even anywhere in the plans.

??

I can only think of one thing in his defense....just one. If he had just had a nooner and reeked of pussy and was going to drink out of the can and then give it to me, then you are correct...I would not want to drink from that can. Because as stated before, I like cock. I am not into pussy. So tasting another girl's juices on a can....that's just not my thing.

So come on. Come out of the shadows, put the boxing gloves on and let's go a few rounds with this. Germaphobes, give me your input on why this would be such an issue for you to have someone drink after you....even if you would never again touch the glass/can/cup after that person had a sip.

And for my FPOTP, even though your weird side is showing through, you know I still love ya, babe.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - There Will Be Blood (Part 1)

2008-02-03T18:12:00.000-06:00

Two warnings before you go see this movie:
1. Make sure you have had your bathroom break before you take your seat. The movie, itself, is almost 2 hours and 40 minutes and when you add in the previews, that makes your sitting still in the theater in one spot a marathon of 3 hours. Luckily I didn't find myself needing to leave the theater at any point during the movie, but there were quite a few people that were not so lucky. I felt sorry for them because this is the type of movie that if you miss a few minutes, you're completely lost. I should know because I missed a few minutes here and there.

2. Probably not the best flick to be sitting on top of the speakers for. I took my seat in the third row from the front as I've been doing for all the movies I've been seeing, but there were SEVERAL scenes where I swear to you I thought I was going to lose my hearing. Not nice loud booms, but screeching high pitched not-sure-what-the-purpose-was noises. I'm sure they were loud for the people behind me, too, but maybe if I sat more towards the middle instead of closer to the aisle....?

That out of the way, this was an excellent movie about a man whose life revolved around two things: his son and digging for oil. He has the manpower and the equipment to be the best in the business. Now, he just needs to buy up the right properties. Reluctant property owners and a hearing impaired kid are just a couple of the obstacles that are in front of him.

Daniel Day-Lewis did a good job playing the character. Funny how he looked like Tom Selleck and sounded like Sean Connery (both very good things) but some of the things that he did in this movie were just so...shocking.

I will end up seeing this movie again because I missed a few parts due to the theater being as cold as it was, so hopefully that will help me understand why during the majority of the film I kept saying to myself, "Why did he do THAT?" and "Why did he DO that?" and "Why in the HELL did he DO that?"

Might categorize this one as a drama/black comedy. Because you're laughing at uncomfortable scenes and lots of disturbing images are shown which leave you wondering what is going thru this guy's head.

As it stands, I absolutely HATED the ending, but to be fair, I will post again after I have seen it a second time...and I have also resolved that NO MORE dramas after 9pm. Too much possibility of falling asleep that late at night in the cold theater. And I think I'll get a cup of hot cocoa this time to slurp on to keep me awake. That's a long time to be watching a single movie when you can't be curled up on the sofa wrapped in comfy blanket.

More on this later.....

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Over Her Dead Body

2008-02-03T18:00:00.000-06:00

Over Her Dead Body got some really awful reviews with some citing it as the worst movie of 2008. I will admit that it was a bit hokey in a lot of scenes, but all in all, it was very entertaining.

The movie opens up with a beautiful Eva Longoria rushing around nagging everyone about every little detail that is going on at the outdoor wedding that is about to happen. Then you find out that it's HER wedding. She just wants everything to be perfect so that when she walks down the aisle to marry her dream guy that she won't have to be worried about anything. However, the guy who made the ice sculpture has not made it to her taste and as she tells him "it's not an angel because angels have wings" and she tells him to go back and make wings and then fasten them on this sculpture. As he's backing up the truck, he is clearly headed for the gardenias, so stupidly, Kate intercepts and he stops the truck just in time before hitting her, however the sculpture falls on top of her and next thing you know, she's dead. Persnickety thing that she is, she finds herself in a one on conversation with a woman who claims to be an angel but as Kate has said before about angels having wings and this woman not having wings, Kate doesn't believe her and since Kate is being difficult, the woman disappears and now Kate has to figure out what it is that she has to accomplish before she can get into Heaven.

In the meantime, her fiancee has not moved on with his life even though it's a couple of years later, so his sister is worried about him and has a friend who is a psychic talk to him to tell him that she has contacted his dead fiancee and she has told him it's okay to move on. This works at first but then Kate really does appear to the woman and is determined to not let this woman anywhere near her man.

Worth a viewing and a lot of funny scenes but nothing super spectacular.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Eye

2008-02-03T17:43:00.000-06:00

The original Chinese version of The Eye was so terrifying that the pictures on the back of the dvd case were nightmare inducing.

This was not a good remake of that movie. It tried to be, but it was more of the cross between The Grudge and Final Destination.

Ever since an accident when she was 5, Sydney has been blind and now in her 20's, she can no longer remember the faces of her loved ones or what the world looked like. However, due to her sister's persistence, she is going to have a corneal transplant so that she can see what she has been missing all this time. The surgery is a success, but the woman whose eyes were donated to her was gifted with the ability of clairvoyance and now Sydney is not sure if what she is seeing is real or just part of her imagination.

This movie was okay. Not enough scares to make it a good horror flick and not enough story to make it a good mystery. If the director/producer/writer/whoever would have decided which of these genres to make the movie of and stuck with that one thing, it would have been much better because actually, the story, itself, was very fascinating and the ending was poetic.

But it took a long time to get to the meat of the good part of the story and then it kinda fell flat. Good for a one-time rental but don't waste your money to buy it. And not enough good BOOMs to justify paying to see it at the theater.

My opinion.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Let's Talk Softcore

2008-01-30T22:18:00.000-06:00

Before I knew about hardcore xxx movies, I was a big fan of the softcore flicks out there. And when I say softcore, I'm not talking about the stuff that shows EVERYTHING but the "money shot". I'm referring to the movies that were on late night cable and had the disclaimer "The following feature contains material of an adult nature and is intended for mature audiences only. Parents may wish to consider whether children under 18 should view this material. HBO will show this feature only at night." (Hey, I think I may have that word for word...and from memory!) So this post is dedicated to a few of the finer points of some of my favorite softcore movies that even NOT having seen in over a decade (and in some cases, TWO decades), I still remember fondly.

Malibu Express
This was my first Andy Sidaris movie where I decided that ALL adult features should be by him. He had the perfect setup going in my opinion. Action flick with mega eye candy for both girls and guys where everyone ends up having sex at one point or another in the movie and actually has a pretty decent story. Malibu Express is about our hero, Cody, who is a P.I. and is trying to solve a murder. While he is interrogating everyone at the estate, all of the women are literally taking their clothes off for him. (I'm sure he's considered a good-looking guy, but frankly, blonds don't do much for me. He resembles Alan Jackson quite a bit...oh, and one of my teachers in high school.) Anyway, he's having a difficult time getting the mystery solved because of all these women throwing themselves at him and I'm pretty sure he has sex with all of them one by one and in one scene there are two girls in the shower at the same time. No one really noteworthy in it except for Kimberly Arthur who at the time was the hot babe on Hugh Hefner's arm. Not sure if she's still in the picture with him or not. Don't really care. Just interesting that she's probably the only recognizable name except for Sybil Danning. The reason this movie sticks out in my mind is because of the scene between Shane and Liza in the shower. He had set up the camera on a timer and took off all his clothes and surprised her in the shower and she resisted him - at first - but with his soothing yet controlling voice and forceful body language, they ended up having REALLY HOT SEX in the shower. I know there are more explicit scenes out there but DAMN this was HOT! Looking back on it now, it probably explains a lot of things about me. :] That's better left ended there. :] If you find that you like this type of movie, a couple of other good ones by Andy Sidaris are Hard Ticket To Hawaii (featuring one of the former Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie models) and Picasso Trigger which probably has the best storyline of all of them.

Love Scenes
Ahh....we're talking sex with strangers now. Or should I say an example of a wife willing to do ANYTHING for her husband to make him happy. He's directing a film and he wants her to be in it but when he finds out that she had a fling with one of the actors he had worked with before, the husband decides to cast that guy as the main role that she will act opposite from and as the movie is filmed, the husband keeps changing what the movie is about until it becomes a sex flick and she and her former flame are now having REAL sex for the camera (even to the point where she has her first orgasm-she had been faking with her husband for years) and the husband is getting off on it. The scene besides the first on-camera orgasm she has with the actor that is most memorable is where she is tied to the four-poster bed and her lover is kissing on her getting her all worked up and then he leaves the room and a much older (Sean Connery look-alike) man comes into the room and disrobes and she's struggling to get free because she never agreed to have this man fuck her but that's what it appears is about to happen. I think there are a few other good scenes but those are the best and obviously, you're not going to watch it for the storyline...duh...you're just going to skip to the hot sex scenes.

Felicity
I remember recording this one when it was on the Cinemax After Dark and up until that point, I couldn't remember seeing a hotter movie with more sex scenes than Felicity. (Although, Felicity isn't much to look at and the guys aren't much to look at, either.) The sleezeball that she has the hots for takes her for a drive out to the middle of nowhere to have sex with her and you find out this is her first time and jerk that he is, he is very rough with her (I don't think "date rape" was a functionable term yet) and ends up screwing her on the hood of his car. I think the words he said to her were, "I want you to lay back on the car, lift your skirt and spread your legs slightly." And then of course you hear her yelping and turning her head in shame and then after that she becomes a whore wanting to screw everything in sight. I guess you could call this a coming of age movie. It's narrated in the first person and this one you really should watch all the way through from beginning to end because even when there aren't actual sex scenes, 95% of the movie is still relating to sex in some fashion or another. Another great scene is where she's at a massage parlor and she's watching her girl friend give a full body massage to someone - by rubbing her completely nude, oiled down body against the other person (I don't remember if it was a girl-girl scene or a girl-guy scene, but it was pretty damned hot either way) and then as Felicity is watching, a guy comes up behind her, puts his hand over her mouth and starts pumping into her. So she's getting off from the combination of watching her friend pleasure a stranger while a stranger is pleasuring her. In my opinion, this would be a GREAT movie to re-make with some hot actors and actresses this time around...because the content is there...oh, buddy, is it there! But we're not talking very much eye candy...and that's a bit of a distraction. Unfortunately, when I taped this, it was towards the end of the tape and having rewound it so many times, the tape is getting pretty thin. So I may need to buy a copy when it comes out on dvd. And obviously, this is not to be confused with the tv show Felicity. :]

House Of The Rising Sun
This one has a pretty cool story because it's about a writer who is doing a piece on upper class call girls and in order to get the scoop, she goes deep undercover and becomes one, herself. The most fascinating thing about this movie is that all of their clothing is either black or white. No reds, no blues, no yellows, etc. And the scenery is really cool. First time I saw it I couldn't stop salivating over the thought of someday possibly owning a pool like the one they had. Not very many sex scenes but one that stands out in my mind is where the man in charge is getting ready to give her a test run and he's standing behind her and brushes her long brunette locks aside to kiss her neck and as he feels her tremble uncomfortably underneath him, he more or less tells her that THAT behavior is not allowed. Then the next scene you see him cutting off her long beautiful locks and she's left with a short shag hairdo...supposedly more elegant, but now her shyness was removed with her hair and that's when she becomes more like the other girls where saying no is not an option. (My opinion, unless you're really into the story and you want to find out who the killer was of all the murdered girls, it's really best to turn off the movie once her hair gets whacked off because that's when she's no longer much to look at.)

Crystal Heart
Back in the day I wanted to look just like Tawny Kitaen and this was probably her best movie. Granted, she's not that great of an actress because she tends to over enunciate everything, and always got stuck with crappy storylines but portraying a singer/dancer who falls in love with a boy in a glass box, it was a sweet love story with a very strange sex scene. Since I have never had sex rubbing up against a piece of glass with someone on the other side, I can't say for sure if it would even feel like anything (if you've done this, please feel free to share with the class), but the way they filmed it, at the time, it was kinda sultry...in a weird sorta way. Either way, she looked DAMNED good in this movie and just picturing myself with her body, and her gorgeous red mane, wearing the cool clothes she was wearing, it made for some good fantasies. One of the famous lines I remember is after she has fallen in love with the guy she can't be with and her manager wants her to be grateful for getting her a show at The Roxy, he pushes her down on the bed and at first she struggles but he pins her and she stops struggling and tells him: "Go ahead and fuck me. Just let me know when you're done." As I'm sure you can imagine, she gets a slap across the face for that comment, but is able to get away from him and eventually finds herself in the arms of the man she loves and of course being in a bubble all his life, he breaks out to be with her and they experience everything together and life is beautiful and wonderful yada yada yada until obviously he dies. And it's a hokey ending, but I liked the song she sings at the end so much that I tape recorded it by holding my radio in front of the tv speaker (that's how we did it back then) and I must have sung that song 100 times. It was a bit upsetting to find out that she didn't actually sing it and the lip synching in the movie isn't that great, but as a whole, this movie provided lots of eye candy, cool tunes, and an interesting way to have sex.

I know there are more movies out there that are softcore that had a major impact on my life, but these are the ones that stick out the most....and I've probably seen the most number of times. But enough about what does it for me. Let me know which ones "moved" you so we can discuss.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Awake

2008-01-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

Awake can be summed up in one sentence "Nothing is as it seems."

This movie was full of twists and turns everywhere you looked...it was GREAT! Kept you on your toes...well, actually, on the edge of your seat.

It's really hard to figure out which parts to tell you without giving anything away, so this one will be brief.

A guy in his mid to late 20's goes into the hospital to have a heart transplant and when they put him under general anesthesia, the monitors show that he's under, but he can still hear voices and as they're cutting into his chest and then his breast bone, he can feel every agonizing second of pain. He can't move and his eyes have been taped shut so he has to think of happy thoughts to take his mind of this torture that he's going thru. So he focuses on his girlfriend, with whom his mother is not aware that they are engaged because mommy dearest would not approve. While the surgeons think he's under, many things are discussed about him that completely change everything he's ever thought about everyone he cares about. And now he needs to figure out a way to survive the surgery so that he can confront the people who have turned on him and tell the ones who have been there for him the whole time that he's sorry for doubting them.

Great, GREAT movie! It's short (not even an hour and a half long) but every minute is filled with good scenes.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - I Am Legend

2008-01-29T13:20:00.001-06:00

Another one I saw as a sneak preview, so this is a bit old.

There was an advanced screening of I Am Legend last night at 11:59pm. I have been salivating over seeing this one, so I bought my ticket last weekend. I am still pretty stressed at work, missing deadlines left and right and pretty much pissing off half the people I talk to, so I probably should have worked super late to try to get more caught up, but I figured SCREW IT, it's movie night! :]

Armed with two packages of edamame in my purse and two yogurts in my pocket, I was DETERMINED I wasn't going to fall asleep. (Even though I only got in a two hour nap from the time I got home and the time I left for the movie.) It's so weird how different it is napping a couple of hours late at night as opposed to a couple of hours during the day. Your body feels more lethargic and you are almost to the point of being nauseous when it's super late and you're trying to revive yourself after that short REM break.

Anyway, I got there about half an hour before the movie started - which was a good thing because the theater was PACKED! After the First Look segment and viewing some previews of what look to be halfway-decent movies (The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, You Don't Mess With Zoltan, 10,000 B.C., Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, and The Dark Knight), the movie opens up with a voiceover of someone being interviewed for a new cure that has been discovered. And the cure is for...Cancer.

The cure for cancer is to inject people with the measles. The cure rate is 100% in all test studies. However, it turns out that this cure later turns humans and animals into monster type creatures (a bit like vampires) who become aggressive, have super strength and who will feed on anything that comes in its path. This new disease can be passed from person to person thru bites and scratches but it is also airborne, so three years after this magical cure has been invented, 90% of the population is dead.

One man (a skilled scientist), is immune to this disease. Every day he puts out a broadcast on the AM channels coaxing people to meet him at a designated area at high noon. He trolls the empty streets of New York, with his faithful dog as his only companion, convinced that there are other survivors out there.

The beasties come out at night, so he performs a lockdown routine right before sundown.

One day as he and his dog are deer hunting (which was one of the most entertaining scenes in the movie), one young buck darts into a dark building and dog chases in after it. Following his only friend into the building, he discovers a nest of these humanoid creatures and THEIR faithful companions - creepy-ass looking dog-monsters - and after getting attacked, he unknowingly leaves a blood trail and come sundown they track him to his home and now there are hundreds surrounding his house - too many of them to fight by himself. He hides in his basement/lab where he has been trying to cure the beasts and for the time being he is safe, but there is only a sheet of glass between him and the vicious attackers and with each body thrust, the glass is forming bigger and bigger cracks and it's only a matter of minutes before he'll have nowhere else to run.

(I tried not to give anything away - much more to the plot than just that, but hopefully that was a good enough description to pique your interest.)

This was an EXCELLENT movie. Much better than I had anticipated. I figured it would be good because I really like Will Smith. He's a great actor for both the drama and the comedy. I Am Legend had me laughing, crying, and during a few scenes exclaiming "OH MY GOD!" (as was the rest of the theater)

So what more could you ask for?

Definitely worth another viewing. Probably best seen on the big screen, but definitely requires digital surround sound to fully appreciate all of the action scenes.

I don't remember what this was rated (and my computer runs too slow to open up another page to look), but besides the somewhat mild violence scenes and the creepy humanoid creatures who freak you out by opening their mouths wider than they should (a la The Mummy), I don't remember there being any cursing or naked bodies running around, so while this is not categorized as a family film, it's not entirely inappropriate for the younger tween type ages, in my opinion. And there are even a few cute Shrek references that kids and adults, alike, should enjoy.

But then again, go see it for yourself and let me know what you thought.

Going to bed now so I'm not total zombie girl tomorrow - oops, I mean later today. I must say, though,it's really nice having the coolest boss ever...just in case I DO end up being a tad late... :]

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Beowulf 3-D

2008-01-29T13:17:00.000-06:00

It was 6:45pm. I was still at work and looking at my to-do list with still 15+ things on it, so I decided eff it and I left to go see the one movie I hadn't seen yet at my theater....Beouwulf.

I had no interest in seeing this movie, but they were showing it in 3-D and ANY 3-D movie was going to be cool.

So my opinion on it? Now THIS is what a 3-D movie should be! (Anyone else remember seeing Spy Kids 3-D and feeling gypped? I think they had maybe 2 scenes that were worthy of the 3-D description.)

Being a 3-D movie, my plan was to count how many near heart attacks I had with the stuff jumping off the screen at me. There were SEVEN TIMES when this happened. That's pretty WOW in MY book!

The story, itself, wasn't too terrible. I was actually surprised. And now I'm a bit curious to see what the "real" movie looks like because there were a few characters that appeared to be in the full computer animated version throughout the whole movie. (Maybe they were the actors that didn't feel like being in the 3-D version because they think they're too good for that?)

So the story: The mighty warrior, Beouwulf, is all about the tall tales. He conquers the monsters but then as he's bragging about his feat, each time he tells the story, he is more heroic with each kill. The latest monster, Grendal, walks into the "meat hole" and literally starts ripping people apart. Beouwulf has been promised this special gold horn trophy if he can defeat Grendal. Since Grendal doesn't have armor or weapons of any sort, he will fight the monster unarmed as well ... and in the nude. This was an interesting scene because he is obviously naked but the only thing they show you is his bare butt. And of course they do the strategically placed objects so that when he is standing nude facing you, you still can't see anything. :] It was funny because the Angelina Jolie character also was nude....sort of...having this see thru outfit on that was almost part of her skin (she was a monster, remember) so the guys in the audience were "looking for the nipples" and the girls in the audience were "looking for the penis". Heheheh.

Anyway, the very first huge scare scene is when Grendal walks into the meat hole. The camera shows the entrance where there is nothing there and you know that something is going to happen and you prepare yourself for a scare but good GOD the way that they did it, I swear to you my heart must have jumped out of my body! And the particular theater I was in (# 18) is the digital sound room and with every crash, boom, and explosion, I could actually feel the sound in my chest!

He then faces Grendal's mom (the character played the computer animated Angelina Jolie) where she seductively tells him that he owes her a son and if he gives her a son she will promise him he will be king forever. Greedy soul that he is, he beds her and next thing you know, he's king. (Saying how he became king would be a bit of a spoiler and that's actually the best part of the storyline.)

Not 100% sure I want to see the regular version of this movie because I would probably be disappointed, but the 3-D version is a MUST SEE! It was awesome, Awesome, AWESOME!!!! My favorite parts were the water bubbles and the sparks from the fires.

(In case you were curious, the characters that appeared to be computer animated the entire time besides the above mentioned are the Robin Wright character, the Anthony Hopkins character and the John Malkovich character.)

Might even have to go see this one again. Will be much better seeing in the theater, but as soon as it comes out on dvd (if it does) I'll be first in line to buy a copy.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Saw IV

2008-01-29T13:15:00.001-06:00

This is about to come out on dvd, but movie review is based on seeing the sneak preview when it came out in theaters.

Just got back from the midnight sneak preview of Saw IV.

EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT!!!!

Now, since I've always had trouble with the actual definition of "spoiler", I don't want to say ANYTHING specific about this movie to ensure maximum enjoyment for whoever decides to see it except that it was WAY better than I had imagined. (And I had pretty high hopes for it, anyway.) The traps were super cool and extremely innovative...the punishment fit the crime in most cases. And the storyline was really good, too. For most people, it is quite a bit on the gorey side, but it won't be scary....although, for me, there were a few scenes that had my heart racing....that damned pig mask does it to me all the time. It could just be sitting there with no one inside or underneath it and it gives me the willies. (I don't think any of that was too specific...?)

In my opinion, you will need to watch Saw III to be able to hang with Saw IV because there are many scenes that rewind a tad into Saw III and without having seen the previous movie, you will probably be lost. (For those of you who work with me, I own Saw III (I and II, also) it and am more than happy to let you borrow it to prep you for Saw IV.)

Multiple viewings, of course, are recommended to make sure that all of the details are absorbed.... The theater I went to was PACKED and a bit interactive so I missed a few comments here and there, but it was still EXCELLENT! If you liked ANY of the Saw movies, you will enjoy Saw IV.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Why Did I Get Married?

2008-01-29T13:12:00.000-06:00

Note, this is not to be confused with the "Why Did I Get Married" dvd that was from 2006...odd that they would be released around the same time and would have the same title and both are by Tyler Perry, but anyway, this is from the 2007 version.

This movie was by far the BEST feel-good movie I have seen in a L-O-N-G time!

You have four couples who travel together once a year - each year a different place - and it's basically a story of how they manage to stay together thru all the circumstances.

Patty & Gavin - Patty wrote the book Why Did I Get Married? based on her friends' stories. She arranges for them to go to Colorado for this year's couples trip. Gavin is still grieving the son they lost in a car accident that she doesn't know he blames her for but is willing to do what it takes to keep their marriage together.

Angela & Marcus - Angela owns a hair salon and has a drinking problem. Marcus is an ex-pro football player and has a problem keeping it in his pants. He has two children with Keisha who is trying to break the two of them up so she can be # 1 in his life. Angela & Keisha are constantly at each others' throats and Marcus has to decide which woman he wants to be in the long haul with.

Diane & Terry - Diane is a workaholic lawyer who just made partner and because she is working on a huge case, cannot seem to put down her blackberry and her assistant has been calling dozens of times a day. Terry is a pediatrician who has been trying to start a family with his wife for a long time now. He is hoping that this vacation will rekindle the flame and create the baby he wants. But he has to get her focus off work long enough for that to happen. Then he finds out that she doesn't want to get pregnant, so does he stay with the woman he loves or has she hurt him so deeply that he leaves her.

Sheila & Mike (and Trina) - Sheila is a big girl and is told that someone her size is required to pay for two airplane seats. Mike says he's not paying for another seat for her and scoffs at her saying it's her own fault for not losing the weight he has been telling her to lose all along, so she needs to drive while he and Trina stay on the plane. Sheila invited her friend Trina to come with them because there was an extra room at the cabin. You see the looks between Trina and Mike and you immediately know there's something going on, but Sheila doesn't see it.

Troy - Sheriff Troy keeps Sheila company when she finds out that due to the storm, she can't get her car up the hill to get to the cabin where her husband and friends are. Troy gives Sheila the kindness that Mike never gives her and you're rooting for the two of them to get together, but Sheila is determined to save her marriage (unaware that her best friend has been screwing her over by screwing her husband - even though all of her friends notice right away.)

Once all of them finally get together, things are said, secrets are spilled, and many MANY laugh-worthy moments are witnessed. As you're watching the movie, you kinda become like part of the family. You're laughing when they're laughing, you're crying when they're crying and you're wanting to smack the crap out of certain characters after certain things are said - whether or not the character on the screen actually does it or not.

I thought one of the best lines was regarding the whole 80/20 rule. When you get married, the most you can expect to get out of it is 80% of everything you want. When someone comes along and offers you that 20%, it looks really good to you because when you haven't been getting any, it looks like everything. But if you leave that 80% for the 20%, then all you're left with is the 20%...

A dirocom with an EXCELLENT script. It really delivers with both the heartaches and the joys and even though it's a 2 hour movie and it had a pretty satisfying ending, you want to keep following their stories because all of the characters have now become a part of you.

When I saw this movie, the theater was packed and it was a very interactive group. Normally, this would be very distracting for me, but I was right in there with the rest of them saying "slug him!" during some of the Sheila & Mike scenes.

I rank this up there with ...When Harry Met Sally where you can watch it over and over and over again and be entertained each time.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Michael Clayton

2008-01-29T13:11:00.000-06:00

I guess since they have re-released this to theaters, that means it will take awhile before it comes out on dvd. I have seen it twice, both times when it first came out back in September. Below is my review from seeing it at that time.

This was kind of an Erin Brockovich type storyline. You have a huge corporation who has a dangerous product that has done a bad thing and they are aware of it but are trying to settle out of court to save face and then a top secret document surfaces showing that they knew they were doing a bad thing but continued and now their law firm representing them has to decide what the ethical thing is to do with the evidence.

Quite confusing (for me, anyway) from beginning to end, but the dialogue in this movie from the first voiceover to the very last scene was so good that it was mesmerizing. And the action scenes, though few, completely take you by surprise and are rewarding in the end.

I highly recommend if you see this in the theater, make sure you bring warm enough clothing so that when they crank up the air conditioner, like they always do, you won't fall asleep. The majority of the voices you hear are soothing and there are not enough loud action scenes to jolt you awake if you do fall asleep. And this movie, you cannot miss even a minute of it or you will be lost. (Trust me on this.)

Very good and well-acted, but may take multiple viewings to understand the plot, though. No huge requirement to see this on the big screen, so it might be better to wait til it comes out on dvd.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - We Own The Night

2008-01-29T13:10:00.001-06:00

Father is Chief of Police, one son (Joe) is police lieutenant, other son (Bobby) is night club manager with a drug problem. Joe organizes a drug bust at Bobby's club which upsets quite a few of Bobby's regulars. No one except Bobby's girlfriend knows that he has family members who are cops. When Joe's life is put in danger by one of the drug dealers from the club, Bobby has to choose which side he's on.

Nothing to do with the story, but within the first five minutes of the movie, there is a sex scene that is SO incredibly hot, you would expect it to be in a porn movie....yet, they don't really show much skin. I don't want to spoil it for you, but you boys will be happy to get a tiny peek of Eva Mendes' goodies. (Man, what I would give to have a guy paw at ME the way that Joaquin was pawing at her. DAMN that was hot!) Hopefully the dvd will have an extended scene of that....(Not to disappoint too much, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out she had a body double for that scene.)

A bit slow in some parts, but all in all an excellent drama. I can easily see this as a movie you would want to watch over and over again.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Across The Universe

2008-01-29T13:09:00.000-06:00

If you like music of The Beatles, then you will most likely enjoy this movie. The entire cast does a really good job with the many songs including Hey Jude, Something, All You Need Is Love, Revolution, and Strawberry Fields Forever (there are over 30, but those were my favorites). Across The Universe was unlike any movie I'd ever seen before. It starts out with a guy sitting on the beach and the camera zooms in on him and he starts singing The Beatles' song, Girl (like in the preview) and you're not quite sure whether to expect a musical or a drama or something in between. It was a little bit of Merlin (fantasy special effects), a little bit of Hairspray (every 10 minutes or so breaking out into song), and a whole lot of A Clockwork Orange (where you're just not quite sure what you're seeing or what to think). It's the hippie-dippie era where boy (Jude) meets girl (Lucy) whose boyfriend is in the army fighting for our freedom and then tragedy ensues and a love story is formed. The movie is probably more about the special effects than anything else, but it's a pretty good story where you care about what happens to the characters and the music is excellent. The characters' names revolve around Beatles' songs (Jude, Lucy, Prudence, etc) so based on that, I'm sure there are deleted scenes with more songs that didn't make it into the movie because it was already too long.

I bought the cd with all of the songs and I will definitely be buying a copy of the dvd when it comes out. Hopefully it will have a bunch of really cool extras because the special effects were...WOW!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D

2008-01-29T13:07:00.000-06:00

I had never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I didn't know what to expect. I knew that most of Tim Burton's movies seemed to have the same theme (and lately the same actors) so I wasn't too anxious to see this movie but at the same time, it was 3-D and you all know how anything that comes out of the screen at me freaks me out, so I was looking forward to being freaked out....especially since 30 Days of Night kinda disappointed me in that area.

I'll be honest. I wasn't paying much attention to the plot of the movie. I know there was one, but I was too interested in looking at all of the really cool 3-D effects! Best I surmise is that there's a guy who's a biggie in Halloweentown and he's bored with his everyday routine so he goes wandering in the woods and finds a tree with a peculiar marking on it (a decorated Christmas tree) that he's never seen before, so he opens the door and he enters Christmastown and then he decides that he likes it there, so his plan is to kidnap Santa and take over Christmastown by filling Santa's shoes.

The 3-D effects were all pretty cool, but the BEST ones were before the movie started. There's a jack-in-the-box sitting on the screen and you can tell that you need to put on your 3-D glasses for it and the words on the screen that are also being read aloud state that you need to put your 3-D glasses on because the movie will begin in 3 seconds. Then there's a ghostly 3 that whooshes towards you, followed by a ghostly 2 and then a ghostly 1 and then (you guessed it) the jack-in-the-box opens and a scary looking jack-o-lantern pops out and I swear to you it was like it was two inches from my face. My heart jumped into my throat, I couldn't breathe and I thought I was going to pee my pants. (I didn't, of course.) That was really cool!

Nothing else in the movie did anything remotely as cool as that, but the entire experience was neat and now I'm curious as to what the original movie was like....did the characters still move towards the screen or was that re-made for the 3-D version? (Feel free to let me know if you want.)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Things We Lost In The Fire

2008-01-29T13:06:00.000-06:00

I walked into the theater only knowing that Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro were in it and that it was about a woman whose husband dies. That's it. I thought it would be fun to see a movie I knew nothing about beforehand. Let me go on the record for saying that Benicio Del Toro absolutely repulses me. Every movie he's been in, I have suffered thru his scenes. I don't think he's a very good actor and out of the hundreds of scenes per movie, there are maybe two where he's not smoking. Smoking does not bother me, but when you can't say more than two lines without having a cigarette in your mouth, that's distracting. This movie was no exception.

But despite all that, I liked this movie.

Movie opens up with a man walking by a pool with a young boy. You later find out that the boy is his son. Then you cut to a woman crying and holding a little girl and you realize that the man was her husband and he is now dead. He was killed because he tried to help out a domestic squabble and getting in the middle, he was shot. Then you cut to a funeral scene and the woman realizes that someone was left off the list, so she sends her brother to go tell this man in person (because he doesn't have a phone) and you later find out this was the husband's estranged best friend. Estranged because the woman doesn't like that the friend is a recovering heroin addict and a bad influence on both her husband and her children. Eventually she feels sympathy for her late husband's friend and she lets him move into the recently fixed up but vacant garage where he forms a bond with both her and her kids.

Mostly a drama sprinkled with funny parts here and there. LOTS of flashback moments to where you're not really sure what is really happening now vs. what already happened. (Did I mention how much I hate flashback movies?) And another one that had a weird title. Because based on the title, you're thinking that the husband was one of the things they lost in the fire, when that had nothing to do with his death.

The meaning behind the title: There was a fire in the garage (where she let the friend stay) and she was heartbroken over the photos and baby items that were destroyed while he was calm; and when she questioned why he wasn't more upset over the things they had lost in the fire, he told her that they were just things. She and their children were most important, so as long as they still had each other, nothing else mattered.

Several odd directorial shots in my opinion. Many upclose shots of her face....so much so that you could see the fine black hairs on her cheeks and you could count how many eyelashes she had on one eye. And a few "ewww" moments like when the friend was smoking used cigarette butts. But despite all that, this was a very good movie and I almost didn't regard Benicio as completely repulsive...almost. :]

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Into The Wild

2008-01-29T13:05:00.000-06:00

Narrated by his sister, a young man from a well-to-do family has been accepted into Harvard. He doesn't really care about being part of society so he decides to go out on his own and make it in the wild. He cuts up his credit cards, driver's license, social security card and all of his id's and burns all of his money and reinvents himself as Alexander Supertramp. His intention is to make it all the way to Alaska. Inspired by books he's read and armed with a "Plants You Can Eat" guide, he is gone from home for two years traveling the wilderness and making it on his own by fishing and hunting, all the while keeping a journal of every day's adventures.

This was an excellent movie and if it weren't for the effs throughout, it would be a good family film. Well, actually, there are some nude scenes...and there's quite a bit of gorey stuff shown as it details killing, skinning and cooking animals. So maybe it's not a great family movie, but definitely a good movie to show how to survive without much other than the clothes on your back. He does get a few jobs here and there and with the money he buys supplies such as a kayak to paddle down the river and a shotgun to hunt with, but otherwise money is meaningless to him.

Based on a true story. (There is a self portrait of the real guy that is shown at the end of the movie.) Excellent re-creation of events. I'm curious to know if at the end of the movie it stated "no animals were harmed during the filming of this movie) because there are a few scenes that are questionable. (I couldn't stay in the theater that long, though, because the next movie on my list was getting ready to start.)

There are several really powerful sayings that are made in this movie. Two of them I remember are: "happiness only real when shared" and "When you give, you love and when you love, God's light shines on you."

I can't wait til this one comes out on dvd to find out how they did the moose scene and the bear scene. Both left me holding my breath....not realizing that I was until after each scene was over.

Excellent, excellent movie, but you have to be in the right mood for it to fully enjoy it, I think. It is a very slow, very long (2 hours and 27 minutes) very all over the place (the date of events kept changing from present to 5 weeks ago and back and it was a bit difficult to keep track of what was happening when) adventure drama with a few love stories between him and some of the people he encounters. I think I could watch this one over and over again.

Movie Review - Sarah Landon And The Paranormal Hour

2008-01-29T13:04:00.000-06:00

A teenage girl's best friend has died and the friend's grandmother invites her to stay at her house for the weekend, so she takes the several hour drive to see her. Along the way, she starts to have car trouble but makes it to a local auto shop. (cue creepy music) Out of nowhere a guy appears. He runs the auto shop and after taking a look at her car, he says he can fix it but the part it needs won't be here til Monday. He knows the woman she's coming to see, so he calls up one of his employees to drive her to the woman's house. He mentions the kid's name and it turns out this is a boy she used to play with when they were little kids (cue happy music). She finds out that the boy's older brother who was in a car accident, killing a local man's son, has supposedly been hexed to die on his 21st birthday by the father of the son the boy killed. He had been seeing the ghost of this man for two years following the man's death but now believes that the man has been reincarnated and would now be 11. An 11 year old boy just moved in next door and the brother's 21st birthday is in just a couple of days. Convinced the 11 year old is going to kill him, he tries to wait out his 21st birthday inside the house where no one can get to him.

I didn't expect much from this movie. I tried to watch it from a younger point of view. Didn't work. It was still boring.

I think it tried to be a Goosebumps type of tale, and I think maybe as an hour long segment, it might have done better. The story was interesting enough but the acting was horrible and the "scares" were too cheesy. For example, she's in the house...it's dark...(cue creepy music)...she thinks she's alone but hears something (creepy music starting to creshendo), then BANG...a cat jumps out of nowhere from a room into her arms. That's about as scary as it gets.

Maybe for young, really young - the tweens - girls this might be an okay movie. Otherwise it's avoidable.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Comebacks

2008-01-29T13:03:00.000-06:00

Every team Coach Fields has been in charge of has been a loser, but he is still obsessed with sports and his family life has suffered because of it. He even has trouble remembering his daughter's name. His friend comes along and offers him one more chance to become a winner by coaching a high school football team, so he takes the job. After weeding out the "bad" players, he is left with quite the array of team members including a female kicker, a narcissistic wide receiver and a quarterback who has a trophy for dropping the most balls. Through training (some odd - including dodging wrenches), he is determined to make his team a winner and keep his family at the same time.

I'm not quite sure what to think of this movie. Most of the laughs relied on Airplane-type humor, so if you liked Airplane, you will probably like The Comebacks. The trailer didn't really do it justice, though. The funny bits keep coming at you during the entire movie, but being goofball slapstick humor, there were lots of groans that came with the laughs. It was fun to see the many different movies it spoofed. Probably the best one was the Field Of Dreams scene.

Not buy-worthy in my opinion, but worth seeing once.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Gone Baby Gone

2008-01-29T13:02:00.002-06:00

When I first saw trailers for this movie, it looked REALLY good and then when I heard the title, I thought "what idiot thought up this title" so I had reservations over if I thought it would be good.

I was not disappointed.

The first thing I noticed was the excellent directing. Really good aerial shots that you wouldn't normally see. The movie starts out with voiceover narration which I'm not that crazy about and the guy's voice is almost effeminate, but you stick with it as the story unfolds about a little girl who is missing. The police are looking for her but it's been a couple of days and they're starting to give up hope of finding her. The older couple want their niece found so they hire a local private eye to investigate....he has ties with the community and can find out info that the neighborhood kids would never tell the cops. We find out that the mom of the litte girl missing is a white-trash druggie who owes a bunch of money so now you're left suspecting that something fishy is going on. Is the girl dead or has she been ransomed? And is the mom better off without her daughter because she doesn't seem to care much that she's gone?

This movie had a good plot, some intense moments, and a couple of twists along the way. Plus, there was some excellent eye candy throughout (both for guys and for girls) so whoever did hair and makeup for this film should get an award...I mean, Ed Harris - of all people - even looked scrumptious. The effs and even a few cees are casually thrown around but otherwise, I can easily see this as a movie of the week on regular tv. Maybe not a buy-worthy dvd but definitely rent-worthy.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - 30 Days Of Night

2008-01-29T13:02:00.001-06:00

Once a year in Barrow, Alaska, the sun sets and is not seen for 30 days. Because of this, most of town's inhabitants leave Barrow to go elsewhere since they can't handle being without the sun for that long. There is one more flight out of Barrow and then nothing in, nothing out for a full month. A stranger has somehow come to town. He starts making trouble and the young sherrif arrests him and as the stranger is in jail, he starts talking about how "they're coming" and "you can't stop them" and then we find out that all of the sled dogs have been brutally massacred, but that's just the beginning. One by one and then small groups of people at a time start being grabbed by quick flashes where you then see their heads disengaged from their bodies and their bodies later ripped apart. It takes awhile to see that these are vampires doing the killings. ( They are all really creepy looking...good job with the special effects makeup.) With the speed and power the vampires have and no sun to kill them, the town is now down to just a small handful who are quickly running out of places to hide because the vamps can smell their blood. They've lasted the majority of the time with just a few days left before the sun returns, but the vamp gang is closing in on them.

This was a really good movie! Great plot and not having read the graphic novel it was based on, I wasn't sure what was going to happen next. Downsides: It wasn't as scary as I had anticipated and quite a few of the scenes had quick flashes that you weren't sure what was going on....I hate that. And I don't remember hearing the ominous song they played in the trailer as we see the liquid stuff flowing down the snow...for that scene in the movie, it was silent. But there was plenty of action, tense moments, and blood shed to satisfy a horror critic.

Another movie with lots of subtitles...the vamps had their own language...so ssupload is not the way to go to see this movie. Then again, I think it would be best seen on the big screen, anyway. Worth buying when it comes out on dvd...especially if it offers an alternate ending.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Rendition

2008-01-29T13:00:00.001-06:00

I think this is available on dvd by now, but I haven't seen that version yet, so this is my review based on seeing it at the theater.

A woman is waiting for her Egyptian-born husband to come home from his business trip in South Africa. While he is there, a bomb goes off in the middle of town. He is mistakenly identified as the one who caused it. When his plane lands in Washington D.C., he is walking thru the terminal and is taken aside by officers who tell him that he has an urgent call and then once behind closed doors, he is grabbed, a sack is thrown over his head and then he is taken to a remote location outside the U.S. where he is stripped and tortured (or should I say "interrogated" because as we are told in the movie, the United States does not torture) until he gives up names of who he is working for and with. He is put through a LOT of torture so he is either innocent or has a really high threshold for pain. We then cut back to South Africa where a teen boy and teen girl are forbidden to be together and we see them sneaking around so they can be. You're not quite sure what any of this has to do with the supposed mistaken identity until you see that the girl's father is the one heading up the torture. A United States CIA representative is there to witness (not sure why, since he isn't there to make sure the man is treated humanely) all of this and slowly starts to believe that they are torturing an innocent man. In the meantime, the man's wife (with a baby on the way) and her two young sons are at the airport waiting for his plane to come in but as they watch everyone come thru the terminal (including the flight attendants and the pilot), they never see him. She goes home and starts making phone calls and is told that her husband was never on the flight. But a credit card statement shows he made an in-flight call, which proves he was on the plane, so she decides to enlist an old friend's help (who works for a senator) to figure out what happened to her husband and prove his innocence. But is he really innocent?

This movie had some nice twists to it. Honestly, I don't think any other actress other than Reese Witherspoon could have pulled it off where you're right there with her emotionally. Very interesting story where you're not quite sure who to root for throughout, but that makes the movie even better. Quite a few subtitles.

Tends to stick with you, so repeated viewings probably not necessary, but it was VERY good.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - No Country For Old Men / Hitman / The Mist

2008-01-29T12:55:00.000-06:00

Three movies, one shared plot: Bad thing comes to town. Kills everything in sight. Shows no mercy. End credits roll. :]

Seriously, though.

No Country For Old Men was about a bad guy whose weapon of choice is quite different and original and the sound of it being used just sent chills thru me. Hell, just LOOKING at it will made you shudder once you know how it works. The same guy that plays the bad guy in this one played the good guy in Love In The Time Of Cholera but because of the weirdo hairdo he had going, I kept seeing Brad Garrett which obviously would be a strange role for him. But it made the movie that much more enjoyable for me. This movie got the majority of scares out of me from the lack of a musical score. No crescendoing parts when he would appear and quite a few shocking things were happening in the background while your focus is supposed to be on the foreground. Made for interesting viewing. All in all, excellent, although I hated the ending. I was left feeling very unsatisfied. If I said anything more than that, it would ruin the experience for you. The movie made me consider reading the book it was taken from.

Hitman was about a gun for hire whose latest assignment was to kill a government official. When he finds out that he "missed" and now there is a witness, he has to find and kill the witness, and then complete his assignment and kill the government guy. In the meantime, lots of other people are after him (some good, some bad) and he begins to question why he was hired to kill this one particular guy. Still...he's killing everyone in sight and some of the places where the fights break out are original, while some are corny. Lots of action scenes and a high body count will please, and this one is more of a typical film where you have the musical score to help you determine what's coming next. Pretty good movie. Very satisfying ending except you're still wondering if he was a good guy or a bad guy. Easy to believe it was based on a video game.

The Mist was about a strange mist that comes to town and traps folks in a local supermarket. Anyone daring to go outside into the mist is mysteriously attacked by huge bug-like creatures. Flying scorpion-like things make up the majority but there are also large bird-like things, and many large spider-like creatures as well. And the first one you see has tentacles with deadly spikes on it. Once everyone knows that this mist is bad news, and realize that there is simply glass between them and the creatures outside, they start piling up bags of dogfood against the windows but because of the flashlights they are using, this attracts the bug-like creatures and the windows are now completely covered with them. To make matters worse, one of the bird-like creatures swoops down to grab one of the bug-like creatures and now the window is starting to crack. Everyone is scurrying to turn off all the lights to make the bug-like creatures go away but it's too late and one more hit against the glass and there is now a hole in the glass and some of the creatures come in and start attacking. So now they're left wondering if it's safer inside or if they should take their chances outside because one of the vehicles is parked just a few yards away and it holds 8 people....it takes awhile to get going into the story as the character introduction is a bit boring but that's typical Stephen King as this movie is based on a short story by him. I remembered loving the story and thinking it would make a great movie, but honestly do not remember how it ended, so I don't know if the movie was true to the story's ending, but I can say that they did a great job with the special effects and unlike The Langoliers, you don't have to wait until Act 4 of the movie to see what it is you're dealing with. Very good movie. Hated the ending.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Enchanted

2008-01-29T12:54:00.000-06:00

Enchanted starts off overly cutesy wutsey almost to the point of unbearable (even for me) but it's supposed to be, so you muddle thru it as you watch the beautfiul cartooned maiden dancing around creating the perfect man and trying to find a pair of lips to finish her masterpiece and breaking into song about how important lips are for "true love's kiss". She stumbles across a handsome prince and after not even five minutes together, decide they will wed in the morning. The prince's stepmother will have no part of this because then she will no longer be queen, so she pushes the fair young maiden down a well which propels her thru to another dimension and she ends up in real-time downtown New York. No longer a cartoon character, but still being the naive creature she is, she runs into problems left and right but meets one hospitable man whose young daughter takes an immediate liking to her. He teaches the princess-to-be about the real world explaining that not everything lasts forever, and she shouldn't be so quick to marry someone she doesn't even know. She slowly starts to realize that not everything in the real world has a happy ending and she longs for her prince to come save her to take her away from this mean world; but by the time he arrives, she has gotten to know other people in the real world and begins to wonder if she likes this world better, after all.

If you can get past the first 10 minutes of extra cute makes you want to puke scenes, this is a very enjoyable movie. And there are not-to-be-missed dragon scenes that are pretty cool, too. Funny, entertaining, heartwarming, cute story. And all of the actors perform all of the songs, themselves....very well. Very satisfying ending.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Feast Of Love

2008-01-29T12:51:00.000-06:00

Below is my review based on seeing this movie in the theater on opening night.

This one was a bit odd and definitely not for all tastes. It reminded me a lot of Hope Floats and Little Miss Sunshine in the sense that it seemed like it was never going to end, but you didn't mind because you were so wrapped up in the story and the characters that you felt like you were part of it and you just wanted to follow everything that was happening.

In a nut shell, a man (Greg Kinnear) who has been happily married for 6 years finds out that his wife (Selma Blair) has been having an affair with another woman and then one day the straw breaks and she leaves him for the other woman. Heartbroken, he summons up the courage to date a different woman (Radha Mitchell) and falls in love with her but she has been sleeping with a married man and is not ready to commit to just him. Then you also have a younger guy who falls in love at first sight with a young girl (spitting image of a young Sherilyn Fenn) and they have a passionate romance that you can just tell will last forever but then it ends much too soon. In between you have Morgan Freeman playing the understanding friend to all who has been happily married for forever and seems to be intuitive to everyone's relationships.

It's kinda hard to describe, but it was a dramedy with emphasis on the drama and it's one that would probably not need multiple viewings on because it's one to remember. I guess you could say that it had a happy ending but maybe that's subject to interpretation. Either way, if you like movies that have enjoyable characters and a good storyline, I think you will like this movie. Also, there are a lot of boobs and butts (of both genders) because everyone seems to always be having sex. So if that's a factor....

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Kingdom

2008-01-29T12:49:00.000-06:00

Again, my review based on seeing it in the theater.

Bomb goes off on a Saudi Arabian softball field during a kid's game in broad daylight killing many and American FBI agents (Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman) are brought in to covertly investigate....it is believed that someone on the inside of the Saudi army is responsible as they have already tortured one of their own.

Reminded me a bit of Saving Private Ryan where the violence is graphic and just because you're a main character in the movie, doesn't mean you'll be alive in the end.

According to imdb, this movie was shot mostly in Arizona but you would swear by the aerial shots that you were in Saudi Arabia when you see the palaces. Very beautiful photography.

I expected this movie to be great and I was not disappointed. Everywhere on the tv and the internet, critics kept saying that the last 30 minutes of the movie are so intense that they will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat. Well, that's true. I actually looked at my watch when it was towards the end during a "slow" part where you're just waiting for something to happen because you can feel that something big is getting ready to go down....and sure enough, there were 30 minutes til the movie was over and that's when the big boom happens and you're intently staring at the screen waiting to see what happens next and how they're going to get out of this situation.

I have to say that the BEST part of the movie was during that last 5-10 minutes where you see the plot unfold and the last 4 lines said in the movie just sent chills down my spine. But I don't want to give anything away, so you'll just have to go see it for yourselves....

A bit of comic relief....Saudis .... apparently everyone has a gun and no one swears.

Word of warning: If you have trouble reading from far away, make sure you sit towards the front of the theater because there are subtitles throughout and the last two lines of the movie are crucial.

Memorable quote: "Everything comes to an end. You just have to figure out how you want to go out....on your feet or on your knees." (Disclaimer: This might not be an EXACT quote because I didn't record it or write it down or anything but it's something like that...you get the meaning, anyway.)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Game Plan

2008-01-29T12:48:00.000-06:00

My dvd copy has not arrived yet. Below is my theater review.

Joe (The Rock) is a self-centered, egotistical professional football player who always reminds us that he is "#1 on the field and in your heart" and his only goal is to win the super bowl. Then he gets a visit from an 8-year old girl who claims that she is his daughter and his world is turned upside down and now he must decide which comes first in his life....his football career or his daughter. Kyra Sedgwick plays his nasty tempered publicist who is trying to keep the kid under wraps. (Jen, just for you they have her wearing that god-awful bright red lipstick you hate her in....like she wore in The Closer until enough people wrote in that they hated it.. :))

This movie was much better than I thought it would be. I figured it would be cutesy with a few laughs, but it ended up being a very heart-warming comedy with just enough sap to make you cry at the sad parts and cheer at the happy parts, but enough comedy, cool gadgets and even a few football plays to balance it out and keep the guys interested, too. (Note there are many, many Elvis Presley references and memorabilia to go around for the Elvis fans out there.)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Sydney White

2008-01-29T12:47:00.000-06:00

Saw this in the theater opening night. Below is my review.

Sydney is excited about going to college to experience what her mother (who has been dead for many years) experienced. Rushing the same sorority her mother was in, she finds out that she doesn't fit in and is forced to live in "the vortex" with seven guys...grumpy, sleepy, doc, bashful, dopey, sneezy, and sleazy. Rachel Witchburn has been the fairest in the land until Sydney shows up and now she has some major competition on her hands especially now that Tyler Prince (Rachel's on again off again boyfriend) has taken an interest in Sydney.

This was basically a "Revenge Of The Nerds" for the tweens. Except instead of nerds, they're dorks. It's set up to be like a fairy tale where the good and bad characters are clearly laid out with last names being "Witchburn", "Prince", and "White". And while the critics named it fluff, it is still entertaining fluff and an all around feel-good movie. Mostly aimed towards teen girls, there were quite a few older folks in the crowd, too, and everyone in the theater applauded (except me - I don't do that.) at the end.

One warning....do not take your kids to see this movie if they still believe in Santa Clause. Otherwise, there is a line in the movie that will have them crying, which will probably make you miss the rest of the movie because you're trying to console them over it.

Also, this movie probably isn't appropriate for younger than 12 since there are quite a few sex references.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Eastern Promises

2008-01-29T12:45:00.000-06:00

Again, this is my review from seeing it at the theater - on opening night.

First off, based on the very graphic violence, the rape scenes (both what is shown, and what is only talked about) and the male frontal nudity in this movie, I am extremely surprised that it wasn't rated X or at the very least NC-17. (The nudity part, alone, I thought was an immediate X right there...?)

This was a V-E-R-Y long movie that could have easily chopped out 30 minutes and it still would have been just as good.

So you have a young pregnant girl who wanders into a pharmacy asking for help, blood poors out of her, she faints, she's rushed to the hospital and has an emergency C-section where the baby lives but she dies and then you find out that she has this diary describing very bad things that have happened involving very bad people. The diary is written in Russian, so the nurse who confiscates the diary (in order to give to someday give to the daughter) asks her uncle to translate it and in the meantime she follows clues from the girl's purse which lead her to the first of many seemingly shady characters. The man offers to translate the diary for her, so she brings him a copy of it and then once aware of the diary entries inside, he will do anything to get ahold of the original to keep his family's secrets safe.

The best part about this movie was trying to figure out who was a good guy and who was a bad guy because you're guessing from the first 5 minutes all the way until the very last 5 minutes.

There are quite a few disturbing torture-type violence scenes, so this movie is not for the squeamish. And of course the F bombs fly freely, but as long as you go into it knowing all of this, I think you will find it to be a very gripping, very intense, well-acted drama with a good story.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Good Luck Chuck

2008-01-29T12:43:00.000-06:00

My dvd copy is on order, but I don't have it yet, so below is my review based on seeing it at the theater.

I enjoy Dane Cook because he is funny, VERY easy on the eyes, and I think he's turning out to be a pretty good actor. I thought this story about a penguin-obsessed klutzo hottie who runs into a cursed to never find true love hottie was done very well. Granted, they could have done Jessica Alba's character a little better because while they had good chemistry together, she was such a bitch; and, frankly, I didn't want them to have a happily ever after. (And while you get to see lots of boobs and lots of his butt, they do NOT show HER nude in this movie - sorry, guys. Although there is one scene where you can see the side of her boob and when the dvd comes out, I'm sure there will be a lot of guys pausing that part to catch a glimpse, but otherwise, you'll just have to keep imagining what she looks like in the buff.)

Anyway, this was a cute movie and I thought it very funny. Critics hated it saying it if you're expecting the next Superbad, you'll be disappointed. And while I didn't think it was as funny as Superbad, either, I don't think it should be compared to anything else. It isn't supposed to be another Superbad. Its purpose was ... as all movies are supposed to be ... entertaining, nothing else. And this one more than delivers as every minute of it was enjoyable.

There are a few sappy, but touching, moments that prove that he is more than just a shallow sex machine, but otherwise I was laughing throughout the whole movie all the while rooting for him to keep the love he had finally found (even though it was with HER) after all the women he had lost to "the next guy".

A bit of trivia:
1. Dane did a similar ass-scratching scene as what was in "...Waiting".
2. As promised from commentary in Employee Of The Month, Dane is wearing the cap from THAT movie in the scene in the park in THIS one.
3. Someone out there will have counted how many women he slept with, but it will be impossible to figure it out without being able to pause the movie. There are too many multiple shots of him with different women to be able to count and they never tell you in the movie how many he has been with.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Dragon Wars

2008-01-29T12:41:00.000-06:00

I'm waiting until the price goes down dramatically before I buy this movie. Below is my review from when I saw it in the theater. Per my review, the purchased dvd will be to see the selected scenes. The rest of it sucked.

I'm not really sure what this movie was supposed to be about....it was VERY slow in the beginning. Every 500 years there is a girl born with "the mark of the dragon" and when she hits her 20th birthday, it is her obligation to sacrifice herself for the good dragon to appear and conquer the bad dragon to save all mankind. This supposedly started a LONG time ago when the first girl refused to let the good dragon take over her body because she fell in love and ended up jumping off a cliff with her lover, so now 500 years later, we see a girl with "the mark" and find out that she's 19 and this reporter guy about her age has this special amulet and has the mission of finding her and making sure that she fulfills her destiny.

When you find out that these reptilian creatures and their armies are completely destroying the city and killing people in the process all because they want to get to this one girl to kill her to make sure the good dragon isn't summoned, you find yourself sitting there thinking "just kill the girl" but I think you're supposed to be rooting for her and the point is supposed to be that she lives and summons the "good" reptilian creature to kill the "bad" one and then all can be good in the world again.

The acting wasn't that great, the characters were hard to like, the eye candy just wasn't there (for me, anyway), and the story was hard to follow.

BUT....all of the dragon/snake scenes were AWESOME! Jurassic Park type stuff...putting yourself in the main characters' places, you'd be peeing your pants. The effects were THAT cool!
So I would suggest waiting until this movie comes out on dvd and fast forward to just the snake scenes (the dragons don't show up until the very, very end of the movie) and then you'll enjoy this one. Or....you could see this at the theater and enjoy the special effects on the big screen as they were intended as long as you are aware of the bad acting, slow moving story and unlikable characters.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Mr. Woodcock

2008-01-29T12:39:00.000-06:00

I just ordered the dvd but it hasn't arrived yet, so below is just my review from seeing it at the theater.

Former fat kid who was mentally (and sometimes physically) tortured by his gym teacher, writes a self-help book and thru his publicist finds out that his home town has awarded him the coveted key to the city (telling the actual name of the key and celebration would ruin the fun) so he flies back home to see his mom, only to find out that she's dating the gym teacher he had who prompted him to write the book in the first place. Even though he is a successful writer now, the gym teacher is still able to push all the right buttons on him and he ends up feeling like the fat kid who can't do anything right all over again. When he realizes how serious the relationship is between the gym teacher and his mom, he vows to break them up by getting all of the dirt on him that he can find.

Anymore than that and it would ruin the laughs....which were plentiful. Most of the best scenes were shown in the previews but there are still plenty of laughs for all of the other scenes, so you will not be disappointed. As with most comedies, there are a couple of corny jokes and a little bit of slapstick humor, and a few sappy scenes, too. But all in all, this was hilarious and I would rank it up there with Superbad....and, time and money permitting, would definitely see it again soon.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - The Brave One

2008-01-29T12:38:00.001-06:00

Waiting for this one to come out on dvd, this is my review when I saw it opening night.

Honestly, I thought this would end up being the same movie as Death Sentence because it's all about a vigilante hunting down the killers of a loved one, but it ended up being much better than I expected. Jodie Foster always seems to overact in my opinion and this was confirmed once again listening to the voice-over at the beginning of the film as it sounds like she's reading from a book to a bunch of children, but then you realize that she does a radio show, which make it more acceptable.

She and her fiancee are so in love and can't wait to get married but eloping is out of the question because they've already ordered the invitations and his family has been looking forward to the big wedding. They go for a romantic walk with their dog, tossing the ball a few times for him to fetch, and then after a few minutes of conversation, they realize that the dog is nowhere in sight. They go looking for him and discover that the wrong people have found him and demand a reward. They are now surrounded and both are robbed and then beaten to a bloody pulp. She wakes up in the hospital several weeks later to find out that her fiancee didn't make it and she no longer feels safe in the city that she grew up in so she buys a gun. Her perspective has completely changed and there are situations that she coincidentally ends up in and in order to protect herself she ends up killing a few men along the way to finding the guys who killed her fiancee.

She befriends a cop and they get really close and as the vigilante murders keep happening, he confides in her about the murders and then slowly figures out that it has been her and now has to decide if he will turn her in or look the other way.

This had a very satisfying ending and while I liked both Death Sentence and The Brave One, I would see The Brave One again first.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - August Rush

2008-01-29T12:35:00.000-06:00

Saw this on a sneak preview night and since then have purchased the original soundtrack and am anxiously waiting for the dvd to come out. Below is my review based on seeing it in the theater.

(They had a special showing on Saturday night, so I saw this one. Officially opens this weekend.)

Boy meets girl on roof top. Boy is appreciating music being played on street corner and invites girl to join him and they enjoy music together. (She is a cellist, he is a singer.) One thing leads to another and she gets pregnant but her dad doesn't approve of the boy, so when the girl is hit by a car, the dad decides to tell her the baby didn't make it. (He doesn't want a baby holding her back from her potential to be a professional musician.) Flash forward 11 years and you see a boy at an orphanage who doesn't want to be placed with a family because he is convinced his mom and dad will come back for him, so he runs away and find a kid playing guitar on the streets. Following him to where he lives, he sees that several other kids are living in an old, abandoned church with a much older man who is using the kids to play music out on the street while he profits from their hard work. The boy is a musical prodigy, learning both guitar and piano and composes songs in just a matter of months, and soon becomes the favorite of the old man - who sees only dollar signs. The boy is convinced that he can hear his mom and dad and that if he plays his music, they will be able to hear him, too, and then they'll know where to find him and they can all be a family.

Ok, so the story about being able to "hear" his parents and the mom being able to "hear" the son....that part is pretty hokey, BUT otherwise the story was great, the music was EXCELLENT and you genuinely cared about the characters and wanted to see them all get together. This one is worth watching again and again if for nothing else, the music. And an added bonus is that with the exception of the young boy, the songs are really performed by the actors. (Keri Russell plays the cello. Jonathan Rhys Meyers sings in a band with his brothers.)

There wasn't a dry eye in the theater by the end of the movie....and there were people there of all ages, all races, and BOTH genders that were having trouble keeping it together because of the powerful ending.

Highly, highly recommended ... especially if you like good music. But also...in my opinion....Keri Russell has never looked prettier and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was H-O-T-T-T-T!!!!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Love In The Time Of Cholera

2008-01-29T12:33:00.000-06:00

It's 1879 in Cartagena, Columbia as teen Florentino is passing by the window of Fermina. Their eyes lock and instant attraction by both keep their eyes gazed upon each other for 10 to 15 seconds. This is definitely love at first sight. However, Florentino works in a telegraph office and Fermina's father does not approve of the boy because he does not make enough money. So the two start writing each other secret letters, hiding them in various places for the other to find, each one more passionate than the last. They cannot wait to be together. Fermina's father finds out about the letters and decides to move his family far away. She'll be back in no less than 2 years. He will wait for her.

A few years later, they meet up in town and she remembers her father does not approve, so she coldly dismisses him (the fugly bitch!) telling him she doesn't love him and is no longer attracted to him. Heartbroken, his mother calls in a favor to have his employer send him far away so that he will forget and his heart can begin to mend. He will be gone for at least a year but will return. He knows she loves him. He will wait for her.

In the meantime, she gets sick and with the deadly strain of Cholera going around, she is convinced she has it, so a handsome young doctor makes a house call. He is instantly attracted to her and the father approves of the (financially sound) young man so the father gives permission for them to marry.

Florentino returns and is looking for his love, Fermina, only to find out that she is in Paris on her honeymoon. Heartbroken, once again, he knows that she has married due to her father's insistence. So now he must wait until her husband dies and then he can be with her. He will wait for her as long as it takes.

So while he is "saving himself" for her, he ends up bedding pretty much every woman in sight.

Flash forward several decades - she is in her 70's with two grown children with families of their own, he is 80 something. He has now been with 662 women by the time they meet again....at her husband's funeral. He arrives to declare his love to her and she tells him that he is never to set foot in her house and she never wants to see him again. But he is still convinced that she loves him and they begin spending time with each other again which infuriates her children.

Those of you that know me....I am not one for erotica. Lovey dovey stuff that can be found in a Harlequin romance novel gives me hives just thinking about it. For the most part I like the down and dirty get to the point type of story, but this one was REALLY good. Of course you're thinking the guy is stupid for waiting for her for 51 years, 9 months and 14 days (or whatever the actual time was) but it's supposed to renew your faith in love. And how if it's true love, it's worth waiting for....51 years, though? Come on. And, sure, he saved his love for her, but he certainly didn't save his body for her. And in my opinion, she was a butterface BIG TIME and I had a hard time seeing what he saw in her. Granted, this was a time before makeup had been invented, but compared to the other women he had been with, she was not much to look at. Add to it the cold personality and he should have dumped her the day she said she did not love him. And since their first encounter was a physical one (the gazing look), I just don't see it.

Either way, this was an excellent movie. I will definitely be purchasing as soon as it comes out. It was a hard R, and had LOTS of sex scenes and they cursed a lot, but apparently they had to make quite a few compromises to get it down to an R so I'm anxious to see what the deleted scenes were. Definitely not one for the kids, btw...

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

2008-01-29T12:31:00.000-06:00

Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffmann) is 243 years old and it is his time to leave, so he is going to give his magical toy store to his store manager, Mahoney (her name is actually Molly Mahoney, but she's always referred to as Mahoney) played by Natalie Portman but before he can do this, he needs to find out what the store is worth. In this entire time, while he has saved every single receipt, he has never kept the books on any of it, so he hires an accountant named Henry (although he's referred to throughout the movie as "Mutant" - explained thru one of the many play on words that are made) to determine what exactly he would be giving Mahoney. The store doesn't like the idea of Magorium leaving, so it starts misbehaving by taking away all of the magic and now it's up to Mahoney and a young boy, Eric, to see if they can bring the magic back.

I'll start with the good things. This movie was visually very pleasing. All the bright colors and the fantastic special effects were fun to see what each new scene was going to bring to the table. And the story was really quite sweet. Jason Bateman as Mutant was definitely my favorite character and my favorite scenes he had with the sock monkey were just....heartbreaking. Jason Bateman can do no wrong in my book, so every scene he was in was the utmost enjoyable for me but not just because I like watching him, but because he genuinely did a good job bringing life to his character.

Now the annoying things. Mr. Magorium's voice was very grating on the nerves after about the first two scenes as it was the cross between Willy Wonka (a bit condescending) and Rainman (a bit ...on the slow side). While a satisfying ending, I think they could have given it a little more meat to the storyline to make the ending that much more enjoyable. I, personally, was not fond of the chapters to the story that were being announced to me before each major happenstance ("and THIS chapter is called ..."). And the happy moods that were displayed were that of the sickly over-bubbly happy that makes you want to punch them in the face.

Not sure this one needs repeated viewings, but I think if you're looking for a movie where you can just let your brain take a vacation (we all need this sometimes) and just open your mind and just enjoy the story as it unfolds, with the good things it has to offer, it's worth one viewing. This one is probably better to see on the big screen.

(Totally unrelated to the movie, just thought I'd mention that the ONE scene where Natalie Portman is shown wearing makeup and is actually dressed like a woman - instead of the little girl dressing like a little boy for most scenes they portray her as - she looks so much like Keira Knightley, you're wondering for a moment if Keira was doing a cameo.)

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Lions For Lambs

2008-01-29T12:29:00.000-06:00

Saw this one in the theater opening night. Below is my review at that time.

Three separate stories start out. First story you have a senator offering a top reporter an exclusive of the plan he is putting into place to end the war in Iraq. Second story you have armed forces in Afghanistan who are waiting to attack the Iraqis. Third story you have a college professor lecturing a student on how he is not living up to his potential. As the movie progresses, you find out that all three of these stories are connected.

This was a very dialoguey movie but just because 85% of the time you're just listening to them talk, that doesn't mean that there aren't any violent action scenes....there are enough to make you cringe. Honestly speaking, I missed a little bit....I SWEAR they should rent out blankets or something at the theater! It was so damned cold I think I was out for about 5-10 minutes. Anyway, the conversations between all of the characters were so good that I lost track of what was really going on with the story because I was too busy enjoying hearing them talk. (Kinda like my experience with Michael Clayton.) And I also got a little lost in the story because I was too busy looking at Tom Cruise. I'm not normally a huge Tom fan, but he looked REALLY good in this movie and something about him ... I was just sitting there listening to him and watching him and was enjoying what he was saying but at the end of the day, I wasn't really sure what it was that he had said. I did notice that he used quite a few 4 and 5 syllable words in his sentences which was a bit distracting as I found myself counting how many he was saying in a single sentence. :] The storyline was jumbled and kinda confusing and even if I hadn't fallen asleep for a few minutes, I still think it would have been a confusing movie for me since I'm not that into politics which is what it revolved around.

It was very INYOURFACE about the political statements being made. How we have "traded lions for lambs" as far as how we go to war. Reminded me a LOT of the time I went to a "find out who you are" free personality test that ended up being a Scientology seminar where you feel like you're being brainwashed....like if you don't agree with everything they're telling you, there's something wrong with you. And what they're telling you is that there are too many people in America that are too busy trying to live the good life that they don't know what's going on around them in the real world....and that don't care as long as they're driving their Mercedes and living in their mansions. But as the professor said, what good is a Mercedes if you don't have enough gas to fill the tank or the streets and highways are not driveable?

The debate scenes were my favorite. Two of the students have an idea that instead of your junior year in high school, you should either join the peace corps for a year, join the armed forces for a year or live in a third world country for a year and THEN go back to school...but you HAVE to choose one so that you are more aware of what is really going on in the world and will essentially be a less selfish and less self-absorbed person.

I, personally, HATED the ending, though. Just left you hanging....but not where there would be a sequel or anything.

My opinion, this one requires repeated viewings to understand what's going on. But it was still enjoyable.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Fred Claus

2008-01-29T12:28:00.000-06:00

Another one I saw in the theater on opening night.

Fred's brother, Nicholas was born the perfect child and because of his extreme generosity, he became known as Santa Claus. Fred and Nicholas have had a strained relationship because Fred has been in the shadow of his younger brother since the day Nicholas was born. Due to the demands of children wanting more presents now than in the past, there is trouble at the North Pole because they just can't make that many presents in time for Christmas and management has decided that this will be the last year for Santa and he will have to shut down production if they can't make the quota this year. Fred is in financial trouble and agrees to help out his brother for a price so he travels to the North Pole to help out...not knowing that Santa is soon to become fired.

I read the reviews on this movie and most of them were really harsh. I don't understand why everyone expects every movie to have Oscar-worthy performances with a stellar cast. Movies are supposed to do the following: entertain, inform, educate. If they can do one really well, then that's all that's needed. If they can do more than one then all the better. This movie entertains....and does it well. The acting isn't the best, but who cares? It's a fun, heartwarming story and except for the three "action" scenes, which were stupid beyond words, it was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. My suggestion is to think of this movie as a drama with comedic bits and it will be better viewed. It had a great message (how to overcome being in the shadow of your perfect sibling - boy, can I relate to that - and how important it is to do what's right no matter what anyone else says) and it had a great ending. And if they can find a way to just delete out those three stupid scenes, this would be an excellent holiday movie.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Martian Child

2008-01-29T12:26:00.000-06:00

Another older post - not sure if it's on dvd yet or not, but this is my review based on seeing it at the theater - opening night of course.

An adoption agency that matches foster kids with potential permanent parents has found the perfect match for a recently widowed science fiction writer. They are a perfect fit because he writes about aliens from Mars and the boy thinks he is from Mars. They form an instant bond and both learn from each other what it is truly like to be human.

I love John Cusack. He can do no wrong in my book, so I'm a bit biased when it comes to movies with him. Regardless, this movie had a good plot and good characters. Reminded me a bit of K-Pax with a kid instead of an adult where there are several scenes that make you start wondering if he really IS from another planet as he offers his "Martian wish" and can taste colors. This was a very good drama with bits of humor sprinkled throughout. The ending was a little anti-climactic but sap I am, it had me crying, anyway. The trailers show this as being a comedy. While there are lots of comedic scenes, if you go in thinking that it is a comedy, you will be disappointed. In other words, don't go see this if you're happily bouncing off the walls. If you're in the mood for a quieter drama with a great storyline, then go see this.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - P2

2008-01-29T12:21:00.000-06:00

Saw this one in the theater as well. Opening night. Had a few technical problems with the showing, so I ended up seeing it again. Both reviews are below.

Angela is working late on Christmas Eve and is the last to leave the building. She gets to her car which is parked in the underground parking garage and finds out that it will not start. Her cell phone has no service, so she finds the security guard and asks if he can let her back in the building so she can call a cab because she's already late getting to her sister's house for the holiday gathering. He offers to, instead, follow her to her car to help get it to start - bringing jumper cables with him. She is a little reluctant because she really just wants to call a cab so she can leave, but he seems nice, so she accepts his offer. After jumping her car, it still won't start, so he lets her in the building and she calls the cab but then when the cab arrives, she finds out that the building is locked from the inside and she cannot find the security guard to let her out so the cab drives away. She gets ready to make another phone call and is jumped from behind and wakes up with her leg shackled to a table where she sees that dinner is set for two. The security guard has her held prisoner because it turns out he has been watching her for a long time and decided that he wanted to spend some time with her because he likes her. So now she has to not only figure out how to get away from him, but also figure out how she is going to get help from the outside since her cell phone has no service and since she is locked inside the parking garage. She later finds out that one of her co-workers who made an unwelcomed advance on her has been kidnapped by this psycho security guard as he thinks he has done her this favor since she's not the only female in the building the guy has tried to attack.

The trailer was horrible, so I just knew this was going to be a bad movie but I wanted to see it, anyway. I was surprised. It actually had a very good plot concept. A few points hit home pretty hard (workaholic, no social life, hell...even the character's name) which definitely gave a creep factor to it. The security guard had a ferocious watchdog that also added to the heart racing scenes. But it was pretty unrealistic. Even though the revolving doors would have been locked for the holiday, there would have been SOME way for her to get out of the building. (Some exit only panic device on a door somewhere close by.) :] Fire and life/safety code states that.

Those of you I sent a text message to afterwards saying that it was pretty bad, I think maybe I initially judged it a little too harshly based on my viewing experience. Besides me, there was a woman with her 6 kids. Three of the kids decided to every 10 minutes or so run up and down the stairs, clomping as loudly as they could. And it was EXTREMELY distracting and the mom was doing absolutely nothing to keep them in their seats. ::getting on my soapbox:: If you go to the movies with your kids, either learn how to control them or leave the brats at home. And to make matters worse, about an hour into the movie, somehow the film had moved up so there was this line all the way across the screen and the top part of the movie was now at the bottom of the screen under this line....and this went on until the end of the movie. I know, I know, I should have complained, but all the dozens of times the kids were clomping around, I thought for sure that one of the times they left the theater, the mom had told them to tell the manager....once the end credits started rolling, I realized that wasn't the case. (Because of this experience, I am seriously considering getting one of those little pager things that notifies the manager as soon as my viewing experience becomes dissatisfying because of something like this again. I'm quickly becoming one of their best customers, so I expect that my viewing experience be the best possible.)

So the acting wasn't the best and they could have done a better job with the score, but otherwise it was a pretty decent movie. I think when it comes out on dvd, provided it has a commentary, I will buy it and find out that when I see it again (without the two annoying factors I had to deal with) that it is an enjoyable thriller. While there are a couple of gruesome scenes (a la Very Bad Things), it is only moderately scary, but it's the type of scary that could really happen. If you're expecting a good horror movie, you will be disappointed, but if you're wanting to see a thriller with an interesting ending, this might be for you.

Second Viewing of P2
I saw P2 for a second time. It was SO much better without the picture being all screwy. And it turns out that when I saw it the first time, I must have dozed off for about 10 minutes because I totally missed the dog attack scene. And now it makes sense why she was limping at the end of the movie. Here I was thinking they were just trying to overdramatize the situation by having her limp, but when a dog takes a huge chomp on your leg, it tends to make you have trouble walking like normal. (Trust me, I know.)

This one still cuts a little close to home for me. Single girl. Workaholic. No boyfriend. No life. Working late by herself. Thankfully we don't have a parking garage here. :]

Vixy :]

Movie Review - American Gangster

2008-01-29T12:18:00.000-06:00

Saw this movie in the theater on opening night and below is my review on it.

Based on a true story about the first black gangster, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), from the beginning of the movie you're not sure who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. And in fact, for the longest time, there are no good guys...only bad guys and badder guys....all the while showing gray areas that, yes, he's doing illegal things, but he's taking care of his family and he's not getting greedy with his profits. Frank is the ultimate gentleman who has respect for those that deserve it but at the same time, he has a business to run and if you cross him, he kills with no hesitation. Within the first 30 seconds of the movie, there is a guy who is lit on fire and then has an entire clip put into him, so if there was any question of if this movie might be violent, it was answered pretty quickly. There was also one scene in the movie that was so shocking it had the entire theater exclaiming "OH MY GOD!!!". (Obviously, I'm not going to give that away.)

You also have Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) who is a lily-white cop after the bad guys (who include crooked cops) and it takes him awhile, but he eventually figures out that Frank is one to be watching. Of course his superiors do not believe him because there has never been a negro gangster before and Frank has played it cool making a LOT of money selling 100% pure heroin for several years without anyone being the wiser.

One of my favorite scenes was where Frank and Richie are together talking at the end of the movie. And of course the many shocker scenes were good because they really did catch you by surprise. I think even the experts who just KNOW what's going to happen next will be caught off guard. I don't want to say anymore about it, though because I don't want to give away too much.

EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT movie!

And, I am excited to say that even though this movie was 2 hours and 37 minutes long and even though it was VERY cold in the theater and add on top of that I was already tired from not getting much sleep last night (because the dogs kept waking me up) I stayed awake thru the entire movie. Didn't even doze once. :] Great action! Great storyline! And of course, with Denzel in it, you really can't go wrong, anyway.

One tiny little disappointing thing.....as many times as I saw the behind the scenes for this movie (on the First Look pre-show at the theater), the way they always ended the segment, which is also in the trailer, was Frank dropping his pistol, turning away from the camera, and walking out of the room. That was a very dramatic scene and I was looking forward to seeing where they were going to place it in the movie, but they never did show it. So I'm hoping that once the dvd comes out, there will be bunches of deleted scenes that will include that one and hopefully a commentary to explain WHY it was omitted.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Bee Movie

2008-01-29T12:15:00.000-06:00

Below is my review based on seeing Bee Movie in the theater. I have since seen it again in the theater and it was just as good the second time around and I look forward to adding this one to my collection once it comes out on dvd.

Once bees graduate from school, they immediately go to work making honey. They are given the choice of which job function they want to do and are told to choose carefully because that will be what you do for the rest of your life. You see, bees do the same function every single day...no vacations, no time off...ever. And it's been this way for 27 million years. One bee, Barry (Jerry Seinfeld), doesn't like the idea of doing the same thing every day for the rest of his life, so he wants to see what it's like outside the hive. Launching out with the Pollen Jocks (yes, they do exactly what you're thinking they do), he ends up getting separated from them and meets a human. Bees can talk, but it is strictly forbidden for them to talk to humans; however, this one human, Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), saves his life from being squashed by her boyfriend (Patrick Warburton) so he wants to tell her thank you. After her initial shock of a talking bee, they end up getting to be good friends. One day when they're out and about together, grocery shopping, he sees that honey is on the shelves and humans are consuming it, essentially having stolen it from the bees. So Barry decides the right thing to do is to sue the humans for stealing the honey from the bees and keeping the bees as slaves. ("There are bee KEEPERS but are there any bee FREEers?")

Basic message is that we, humans, need bees to do what they do in order for life to exist, and the way they demonstrate that really makes you think. I'm not saying that I've conquered my entomophobia after having seen this movie, but it made me appreciate a little more that bees have a reason for being here. (Hornets and wasps still have yet to prove to me their purpose in the circle of life, though.) :]

I'll be honest. I figured this movie would be only okay, with just a few funny parts, because I think Jerry Seinfeld overacts, but it was GREAT! From the very start of the movie where the Dreamworks logo appears (and they customized it for this movie, but I don't want to give away how they do it) up until the very last scene, it was entertaining, informative, funny, and it had some heartwarming moments. Once you get about 3/4 into the movie, the ending becomes pretty predictable, but that's okay because you're still wondering HOW they're going to get to that point, so it doesn't lose any of it's momentum. Jerry Seinfeld is credited with writing and co-producing so he gets respect from me for that. It's a refreshing story told from an interesting point of view (the bees'), the visuals were stunning, and the cameos were well used. Overall, they did a great job with this movie!

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Feel The Noise

2008-01-29T12:13:00.000-06:00

Another movie I saw quite awhile ago in the theater. I do not recommend it, but below is my review on it.

A dance movie with good looking people, rockin' sounds and an interesting storyline, so how can it possibly go wrong?

I'm the type that watches the opening credits to see who all is going to be starring in the flick I'm watching and as I was reading thru each name, I did not recognize a single one....until they got to the last part about the producer being Jennifer Lopez. So of course, if she's involved, it's going to have some sizzling dance movements. It did. Different type of music than I'd heard before. Reggaeton, I believe, is what they call it.

So you have a teenage kid who gets in trouble (steals rims off a car of the wrong guy and he and his buddies come into the club and take a shot at the kid while he's on stage performing his hip hop song) so his mom sends him to Puerto Rico to live with his dad....his estranged dad that he hasn't seen for over ten years. The kid is really into music and he finds out that his stepbrother mixes his own tracks so they collaborate together and make a demo...thanks to a girl he meets whose neighbor has his own studio. She is a dance instructor and a guy who wants "private lessons" from her is a biggie in the music industry so she gives him the demo, he listens to it, likes it, and ... well, you can figure out the rest.

Most of the songs were really good, the dancing was fun to watch, and the acting was decent.

But like the other two....I just HATED the ending. It kinda left you hanging. You don't really know what's going to happen next, yet this is definitely not sequel material, so I left the theater feeling like "what???". So basically, I'll download some of the music that was in it and that will be good enough for me. Not really needing a second viewing of this one. Although, the dance movements were really good.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - In The Valley Of Elah

2008-01-29T12:11:00.000-06:00

I don't think this movie is available yet on dvd. Below is my review based on seeing it in the theater. I still await someone to tell me what the ending meant, so please feel free to comment on it.

Man gets a phone call that his son in the army has gone awol. He knows his son would never do that, so he goes searching for him. His son's body is then found mutilated, so he does his own investigation to find out what happened.

This was a good military drama and it keeps you mesmerized with the characters to find out what they're noticing and what they're learning as you go from scene to scene. (Like where he says to the cop when they're standing at the crime scene "by the way, you should tell them they need to be looking for a blue car, not a green car, because under this yellow light, a blue car looks green....doesn't it?"....and you're sitting there agreeing with him but you wouldn't have really noticed it had he not brought it to your attention.) What I found most noticeable about this movie was the score....or should I say lack of. There are so many moments where in a typical drama you would have some kind of dramatic or creepy or solemn type of song playing in the background but there was nothing but silence as he pulls up into the driveway and then enters the house or as she's sitting at the table deciding whether or not to open the package. It was a bit odd and uncomfortable, so perhaps that's why it was done that way.

I liked this movie and would watch it again, but I want someone to explain to me what the ending meant. Another movie where I didn't like the ending. Again, not wanting to give it away, but basically, through the entire movie they show that the army man is still very much inside of him as he polishes his shoes before going to bed and tucks the covers under perfectly to make it before he leaves the hotel in the morning and even looks the topless woman in the eyes the entire time he's talking to her...yet he does something very unpatriotic at the end and you are supposed to feel like he is sending a message by what he is doing and you are supposed to think that what he has done is patriotic somehow. ? Granted, I don't know much about military procedures, but I'm 99% sure that had anyone else done what he did, they would be deemed unpatriotic (and possibly carted off to jail.?) (So, please, someone see this movie and tell me what it means.?)

Vixy :]

Movie Reviews - The Heartbreak Kid

2008-01-29T12:06:00.000-06:00

The Heartbreak Kid is on dvd now - yes, I purchased it - below is my review at the time of seeing it in the movie theater.

Ed has never been married, not because he doesn't want to be married, but because he feels like he has never found the right woman to settle down with. One day he meets what he believes is the perfect girl for him and after a few months of dating her (abstaining from having sex with her, by the way....this is important for the plot) he pops the question, they get married and then go to Mexico for their honeymoon. On the drive there, he discovers many things about his new wife that completely changes how he sees her and he questions their compatibility. One night while she's in the hotel room, he's down on the beach at the bar and meets a girl that he has an instant connection with - who is there with her family - and he decides that he must figure out how to leave his current wife so that he can be with this other girl.

It was really quite funny throughout and the comedy bits seemed to be original, although the type of humor I think was more geared towards men than women in the sense that most of it relied around either body parts (predominantly noses and boobs) or bodily functions to get the laughs. One of the biggest laughs was when after being in all these different sex positions like the corkscrew, he says to his wife "why don't we just try the missionary position for a little while" and she says "what's the missionary position?" heheheh...you guys out there are probably thinking she sounds like the perfect girl, eh? But he's having to work REALLY hard to keep her satisfied all the while she's yapping in his ear about "tell you me how much you like it" and then getting a little too rough for his taste both during AND after sex.

I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but it was great up until the very, very end. In fact, it was HILARIOUS up until that point. But I absolutely HATED the ending. Maybe when the dvd comes out they will have had an alternate ending because I can't believe this would have been what the writer intended on the way the story was supposed to finish.

Anyway, this was definitely worth another viewing. (I think maybe the blonde was supposed to have been played by Cameron Diaz at one point or another because it seems that it may have been written for her and the girl resembles her a bit. Perhaps she wasn't available due to scheduling conflicts, but this other girl did ok. - Sorry, I don't remember her name and I'm not going to look it up now.) <--- Malin Akerman. And, no, there was not an alternate ending on the dvd....which is a bummer. But when 98% of the movie is good, it's hard to complain about that last 2%, so I still highly recommend it.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Dan In Real Life

2008-01-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

An older movie review that I made before I created my blog. (Note: There will be many to follow.)

Dan In Real Life

A widower, Dan (Steve Carell), is raising his three daughters on his own (17, 15, and 11) and he is juggling between family and his work as an advice columnist.

Once a year, his entire family gets together at his parents' lake house which includes his parents, his two brothers, his one sister and their spouses and kids. The one brother, Mitch, (the yummy Dane Cook) is not married but his girlfriend will be joining them shortly.

To kill time (and because his mom sent him out of the house to take a break) Dan decides to go to the local bookstore where he meets a girl, Marie (Juliette Binoche). You can see that they have instant chemistry. They end up spending what you can only guess to be several hours talking about everything. Or should I say, HE ends up talking about everything but she is happily hanging on his every word. Then she gets a phone call and has to leave to meet up with her boyfriend...of which she never mentioned having until this point. So they go their separate ways but not before he gets her number so that they can finish their conversation at a later point. She agrees that even though she's seeing someone else, the phone call would be harmless so she gives him her number.

Dan gets back to the house and is walking on clouds that he met such a great girl and he privately tells his brothers who in turn end up announcing it to the entire family. Everyone is happy for him and they all convince him that even though she has a boyfriend, he should make his move to ensure she doesn't become the one who got away. They tell him that since she doesn't have a ring on her finger, she's fair game.

Mitch's girlfriend arrives and you see that it is Marie. Dan is heartbroken but is trying not to show it.

So now Dan is faced with the delimma....should he pretend he doesn't have feelings for Marie in order to let his brother be happy or should he follow his heart and hurt his brother?

This was a really cute movie. VERY funny, and very heartwarming as Dan struggles with not only his feelings for Marie, but also his relationship with his daughters. Every scene is entertaining and most of all the "special room" that Dan sleeps in. (That got many roars of laughter, so I won't spoil it.) I'm confident that I didn't fall asleep, which means there must have been some scenes in the trailer that didn't make it to the movie, so I'm hoping when the dvd comes out there will be tons of deleted scenes. This one is definitely worth watching again and again.

It's funny that when I got to my seat before the movie started, there were only about 10 other people in the theater and by the time the previews began, only about 6 others showed up. And with the exception of one mother-daughter pairing, EVERYONE else was older. I could only picture that everyone in my age bracket and younger was in one of the three theaters showing Saw IV. Knowing this, my heart wasn't really in it for Dan In Real Life because while it was a great movie, I kept thinking about what was going on in the theater next to me and what part in the movie they were up to...wanting to experience the whole packed theater for a scary movie thing again.

So...even though I had already seen the midnight showing of Saw IV on Thursday, I decided to see it again last night. :]

The entire experience was just SO great! And I say experience because being in a packed theater and hearing everyone respond to the shocking and sometimes funny scenes....it was just so neat to be a part of that. You don't get that same feeling watching a movie by yourself. And having already seen it, I knew what was coming up (and amazingly even remembered some of the lines that I found myself mouthing along with the various characters). With the second viewing, I noticed a few other things I missed the first time around, so that was cool!

Kinda makes me wish I would have seen the first 3 in a theater, too. (They were actually running Saw marathons in some cities on Thursday where the Saw IV installment was played at midnight, but the closest city to here was Kansas City....a little too far to drive by myself to see 4 movies. Plus, you all know I would have gotten lost, anyway, and then having to explain to my parents what the hell I was doing in Kansas City at 2 in the morning...because who else would I be able to call at the hour?...NOT a pretty picture. :])

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Meet The Spartans

2008-01-27T17:11:00.000-06:00

Meet The Spartans was an option to see at the midnight advanced screening on Thursday night, but obviously I could not see more than one movie at that time which is why I chose Untraceable. However, I did still see this movie on opening night at the first nighttime showing. The odd thing was that I seemed to be surrounded by people who had already seen it, as they were saying the words along with the characters...and they weren't the lines that had been used in the trailer. I wasn't too thrilled with hearing the movie in stereo that way if you know what I mean, but at least this said to me that it must have been a pretty good movie if there were people here to see it for a second or possibly third time. It didn't seem to dawn on me at the time that I was the oldest one in the crowd.

I wish I could give you a basic plot to the story, but I just can't come up with one. It basically revolves around the pit of death and how many famous people they can throw into it.

The best part about this movie was trying to see how many other movies, tv shows, and yes, video games it spoofed. It was also a reaffirmation of how perfect Carmen Electra's body really is.

Other than that, a waste of time and money.

However, if you DO intend to watch it, rent the video and make sure to watch until the end past the credits. Because there were at least a few people in the theater that must not have seen it yet and complained about what a short movie it was and left right as the credits were starting to roll, but afterwards, there was another 10 or 15 minutes that they showed....that EVERYONE in the theater missed because I ended up walking out of an empty theater. The previews started at 5:20 and there are usually 15 minutes of previews and the end credits started rolling at barely 6:30 yet by the time I got out to my car it was almost 7, so that tells you how much more film there was left to show.

The comedy relied on bodily functions and Monty Python/Airplane type humor. So if you were rolling on the floor laughing at those, then you will probably like Meet The Spartans.

I still say....wait to rent it on dvd, and unless there is a commentary, this is one I will NOT be buying.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Untraceable

2008-01-25T02:12:00.000-06:00

Just got back from seeing a midnight advanced screening of Untraceable. This was another movie I have been salivating over seeing since the first time I saw the trailer back in November.

While everyone else was watching the First Look behind the scene segment program for the various upcoming movies and tv shows (that I have already seen for this month), I was scrolling thru all of the imdb comments about this movie, to prepare myself for what others thought. Quite a few people agreed that it was the cross between a CSI episode and Saw. I will mostly agree with that. But the few who said that it was a feardotcom duplicate? No. Nothing like it. The only comparison between the two would be the website usage in the movies. And while I have already said that I enjoyed feardotcom, this movie was better. Then again, to be fair, it's not in the same category. Feardotcom is a horror movie. Untraceable is a thriller. Crime-thriller, but thriller. NOT a horror movie.

Basic story: Jennifer Marsh is an FBI agent for the Cyber Crime unit and while she is finishing up catching an illegal downloader, she is handed a sticky with killwithme.com written on it. Visiting the site shows an animal being slowly tortured and the feed is streaming live. They do a "whois" to try to track down the site and they shut it down, but it comes right back up and it is discovered that there are many mirror sites and showing that they are coming from thousands of different IP servers that are changing every few seconds. The more people that tune in, the faster the creature is killed. Unfortunately because it is "just an animal", Jennifer's boss does not see the point in digging further into finding out where this sicko is. Until they end up seeing a man in the same location as the animal was in and he is being fed a coagulant which is tied to the machine so the more people that log on to watch, the faster the syrum flows into him until he literally bleeds to death. And the killer seems to be taking victim after victim with each one dying faster than the last because of everyone's interest in the site.

The cool thing is that it DOES kinda play out like a CSI episode, but the computer part - maybe because of the way they directed the scenes - reminded me a lot of The Net (one of my favorite movies). You know almost immediately the who, where, and how, but you don't find out until the end the why. AND it was nice to see a movie that was NOT a flashback. (You all know how I HATE flashback movies.) And what it is interesting...not sure how they planned this out...the first victim dies 1/23/08. C R E E P Y....

I like Diane Lane. I think she's a good actress. But I liked her performance in Murder at 1600 much better than Untraceable. She just seemed kinda hum-drum. Maybe because I kept picturing Sandra Bullock reprising her Angela Bennett role. :] No real "jump" moments, but quite a few disturbing scenes in both gore and in the comments that people were posting while the people were being tortured. In my opinion, it's a good movie to see on the big screen, but not necessary and once it comes out on dvd, the two things I will be looking forward to the most are seeing the closed captioned version - because there were a few newscasts that were overlapping each other and I'd like to see what they were all saying. And I would also like to be able to pause the individual scenes to read all of the posts that were made that you only see a few seconds of. (I usually do that when watching a CSI episode when they show a newsclipping...I guess I'm weird that way.)

Um...what else....trying to think about this while it's still fresh in my mind. Because you know zombie girl will make her appearance at work in just a few short hours...

Oh, yeah. There were a few slow parts that they could have cut out. I mean, it's nice that you know that she has a kid but, my opinion is the brat didn't have to be in the story for it to still be a good movie. Sorry...but she was a brat. A cute brat, but still a brat.

Another thing...I reported someone for a review posted on imdb for blurting out who the killer is without displaying a spoiler alert, so just be sure not to read any of that if you want to still be a little bit surprised.

And be sure to visit http://www.killwithme.com/ and the REAL killwithme website which is http://www.killwithus.com/ but beware....this is the real thing so do you dare participate in someone else's death?

Which was a weird thing that kept going thru my mind as I was watching....the FBI kept the killwithme website up and told everyone not to visit it yet THEY kept visiting it. So....not to sound stupid, but didn't THEY contribute to the deaths, as well? Or because it was each ADDITIONAL visitor that added to the torture, since they were already on, it didn't count....? Dunno.

Good movie. Probably don't need to see again til it comes out on dvd because I can pretty much remember everything that happened, but I'm VERY glad I got to be one of the first to see it. It was well worth it!

Let me know what you thought.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Magic Numbers

2008-01-23T21:52:00.000-06:00

So what is a magic number? A magic number is THE number. YOUR number. The number of people of the opposite sex that you have had cock-in-pussy sexual intercourse with.

It has to be worded that way because otherwise there are too many possibilities for misinterpretation. You know...those times when you might have dabbled a bit with someone of the same sex...that would not be added to your magic number. Or the times when you may have given the entire football team blow jobs but never even removed your panties...that would not be added to your magic number.

There comes a time in a relationship when that dreadful question is asked. "How many people before me have you slept with?" And that's when you have to decide (quickly) how you are going to answer. Because is there really a good number that you can give?

If your number is really small, you run the chance of either a. looking like a liar or b. looking like a prude. Neither one of those is particularly good.

Or, if your number is really large then you run the chance of either a. looking like a liar (to impress) or b. looking like a slut. Again, neither of which is particularly good.

So how do you know when to be absolutely honest and when to fudge the numbers? Well, if you're truly with the right person, then your magic number shouldn't make a difference either way. That person is in it with you for the long haul and he/she is (hopefully) your last stop, so whoever was before him/her is in the past and a distant memory, now. Right?

It really all depends on your age and the amount of time that has gone by since your very first sexual experience and now. For example, if your magic number is 30 and your first sexual experience was when you were 15 and you are now 75, that's really not that high of a number at all. But if your magic number is 30 and your first sexual experience was when you were 15 and you are now 16, that's a completely different scenario. Because the 75 year old, chances are will probably not have too many more different experiences to add to that number. Whereas the 16 year old will probably more than likely have at LEAST a few more notches to add to his/her belt.

And when determining your number, you have to also think about if you really want to include those one night stands (however many there may be) or the encounters you'd really rather not even remember...whether you remember them at all or not. Like that time you de-virginized the 17-year-old and were almost caught by the parents walking in so the sex lasted less than 5 minutes. Would that count? Or how about the time when you were handcuffed to the bed and you had absolutely no intention of having sex with this person but being in that position, and that person mounting you, you end up having sex...be it against your will or not...would THAT count?

I think it's best to be absolutely honest with that person because that shows that you are not ashamed of anything you have done or anyone you have been with. Life is too short to have any regrets, ya know? And one of my favorite sayings (and I'm sorry, I don't remember where it came from or else I would give credit where credit is due) is "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." I think it's best to live by those words so that you are out there experiencing everything (at least once, anyway - more than that if you enjoy it) and making sure that you don't go thru life wishing you would have done it differently.

So, that said, what do you think is a "good" range to be in so that you are somewhere between being the prude and the slut? Or is either of those actually a turn on?

Do the guys want the girls who have only been with one other before them? Or are they wanting the girl who has had enough of the variety that she knows what she's doing and has a better idea of what the guy will like?

And, girls, would you prefer the guy that you will be able to mold because he won't know anyone else's touch but yours? Or would you prefer the guy who has been with enough girls that he knows his way around your body and what will make you tremble at the drop of a hat?

I, myself, would prefer the guy in the middle range. The one who has been with more than a couple before me, but a lot less than this guy.

I've been with a couple of guys in my time that were known to be "players" and found that one of them was only interested in his "routine" (God forbid we would do something "out of order") and the other was only interested in what he looked like in the mirror as we were having sex.

No, thank you. I would prefer a guy to be someone who...oh, I don't know...actually WANTS to be having sex with me. Someone who isn't either so into himself that he can't unglue his eyes from the mirror or who isn't concentrating so hard to keep from breaking up his routine that when I nibble on his neck and tousle his hair he gets frustrated because he has now lost track of what action needs to happen next.

And on the other end of the spectrum, I've been someone's first twice now and that's a very powerful thing to be. There is a lot of responsibility that goes with being someone's first. (First ANY new sexual experience, by the way. Doesn't have to just be straight cock/pussy intercourse.) I think your first should be with someone you are in love with and that second person I was with where I was his first, I wasn't in love with him so that wasn't fair to him.

So where am I going with all of this? Everyone has his or her own personal range of acceptable magic numbers and there really is no right or wrong. As with life in general, everything is subject to interpretation. So whatever your number is, be proud of it because it is part of what makes you, you. However, if it's a four-digit number like the guy above has, then you'd better be DAMNED good at what you're doing to be able to get away with just shouting off the rooftops what it is.

And, remember, all those times when you had the gang bangs that consisted of giving head but nothing else happened....thankfully, it doesn't count towards your magic number.

So what is MY magic number, you ask? Let's just say it's somewhere between 10 and 50 and we'll leave it at that. ;)

Vixy :]

Random Vent - No Work This Weekend

2008-01-21T04:59:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to announce to everyone that I did NOT work at all this weekend! In fact, I did not even set foot in the building.

That's a pretty major thing for me as it doesn't happen that often.

However, I'm sure I will be regretting that decision, come 8:30 when I already have 10 new problems that need to be taken care of.

Oh well. It was nice to get caught up on my sleep.

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Mad Money

2008-01-18T20:31:00.000-06:00

I saw Mad Money tonight.

It didn't suck. In fact, it was a pretty good light-hearted comedy.

It's not the type of movie that requires repeated viewings because the basic plot is pretty predictable but the way that they do it is ingenius. This movie reminded me a lot of How To Beat The High Cost Of Living which was a GREAT movie! But, I think I've seen that movie maybe twice, yet I can vividly remember most of the movie, so that's why Mad Money would fall into that same category.

Basic plot: A seemingly well-off married couple (Diane Keaton & Ted Danson) falls into serious debt when the husband is let go from his job. The wife who had been a stay at home mom, now has to find a job but because she has no qualifications and pretty much no skills, her cleaning woman gives a reference and the married woman ends up getting a job as a janitor at the federal reserve where they destroy worn out bills. She is completely awestruck by all this money that is being wasted and devises a plan to steal some of it but cannot do it alone. She sets mini-traps at work to figure out who she would able to trust with this idea of hers and finds two willing participants - a single mom with two boys (Queen Latifah) and a young married trailer trash hottie (Katie Holmes) whose husband works at a meat plant.

The plan she comes up with is actually pretty cool and makes you wonder if the idea from it came from real events. It works out for awhile until one of them gets a little greedy and once you get greedy, you get sloppy and they get a hair's distance away from getting caught.

The beginning of the movie plays off a bit like a caper and the beginning is the end. I'm not much of a flashback fan but they did quite well. There wasn't much chemistry between the couples that were supposed to be madly in love with each other, and although there were lots of funny lines, the characters seemed disconnected from each other, but it's an enjoyable flick and worth at least one viewing. Not necessary to see it on the big screen, though, so you can wait til it comes out on dvd...so go make sure to save your money to see I Am Legend before it leaves theaters because as I mentioned before several times, that one definitely needs to be seen on the big screen. (It's been out for awhile, but I never posted my review on here, so I'll make sure to copy and paste the reviews of the movies I saw when they first came out before I had started this blog. That way you're all up to date.)

When Mad Money comes out on dvd, I'm still going to buy it to make sure it's part of my collection; but, honestly, I remember it well enough that I don't need to see it again for awhile. Although now I'm thinking I want to go find my copy of How To Beat The High Cost Of Living. (Forget Coneheads or Third Rock From The Sun...How To Beat The High Cost Of Living was Jane Curtin at her funniest.) :]

Vixy :]

Movie Review - Cloverfield

2008-01-18T01:51:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the midnight advanced screening of Cloverfield.

Oh my god, what an AWFUL movie! (See, Uncle Gary, I don't love everything.) And in fact, I'm going to do something that I rarely do. I am going to tell you the entire movie so that you don't have to waste your time or money seeing it. However, if you still want to see it, then stop reading here.

(Below are spoilers.)

Boring intro. Ten minutes later, monster invades New York. Seventy-five minutes after that, everyone is dead. Movie ends.

Okay, so you want more specifics? Gotten used to my long, drawn out writings? Here ya go:

Movie opens up and you have about 10 minutes of boring character introduction - if you could call it that. (Boring it definitely was.) Then there's a loud boom and you see stuff flying thru the air but you have no idea what it is. Lots of scurrying about and you're basically the cameraman pov and quite a bit is fuzzy as the camera is being toted around while you're running from place to place. There are a few funny lines. One of which is where there is a small group of them in the subway terminal trying to determine where they should go when one person suggests the tunnels and one guy says (and I'm paraphrasing here) "So let me get this straight. We can either die where we are, die in the tunnels, or die out on the streets, right? Those are our options?" Second guy says "Yeah. Pretty much." So the monster finally shows itself and I guess it's kinda cool looking but nothing can kill it as it's knocking over high rise buildings and making shrill noises. The whole time you're getting dizzy as everything you're seeing is shaky and out of focus. I read that it's supposed to be to let you know what it might have been like for those who witnessed the 9/11 attacks and that this would be a similar type of situation...and a "what would you do" type of feel.

There was one really cool thing about the movie. (Sorry, but just one.) The movie theater showing Cloverfield was the digital one, so every boom I could feel surge thru my body. That was cool! But you can get that same effect when you see I Am Legend and it's a HELLUVA lot better story.

Can't recommend this one. Although, it might be good for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 flick someday.

Off to bed now. Gotta get up and go to work in two hours.

Vixy :]

Sex Talk Wednesday - Delay In Broadcast

2008-01-16T05:39:00.001-06:00

Running a bit late this morning, so I'm sorry to say that today's post will not be complete until later this evening or possibly tomorrow morning as I (obviously) cannot compose this at work.

I know I normally have it finished by late Tuesday night, but my job has me very stressed out right now, so I went to bed early last night. AND my new toy hasn't arrived yet, so the worries of the day didn't exactly go away when I closed my eyes, so I think I finally fell asleep around 11pm. Which means that it will take every ounce of what remaining energy I have to NOT to be a total bitch to everyone at work today.

Thank you for your understanding.

Vixy :]