Movie Review: "The Shaggy Dog"

The second movie we watched this weekend was "The Shaggy Dog," a Disney film starring Tim Allen. I remember being taken to see the original "Shaggy Dog" movie when I was about 4 or 5 years old (I think it was at a movie theatre showing older films; I'm not sure what year the movie came out). My aunt took me to see it, but when we got to the theatre, the tickets were all sold out, so we couldn't see it.

In the movie, Tim Allen plays an assistant district attorney working on a very important case. The case could make or break his career, and possibly a future election to district attorney. But as with Sandler's character in "Click," Allen is spending too much time at work to the detriment of his family life.

He hardly knows his children; his relationship with his wife is becoming distant. The case is whether a social studies teacher set fire to a laboratory because the lab was experimenting on animals. However, no one believes the teacher that animals are undergoing experimentation. The bad guy, Kozak (Robert Downey Jr.), denies that there are any animals in the lab.

But Kozak has acquired a seemingly magical dog, a dog that is purported to be over 300 years old, from Tibet (a Tibetan spaniel, but in the movie, they say it's a sheepdog). He and his assistants are trying to isolate the genetic mutation that is causing the dog's long life, supposedly at the behest of his boss.

The dog breaks free of the lab, and the daughter in the movie, Carly, just happens to be outside the lab when the dog escapes, and she takes it home. She has no way of proving that the dog was in the lab, though. Allen, meanwhile, has made it abundantly clear that he hates dogs, so when he arrives home and sees the dog sitting in the kitchen, he goes ballistic. Carly tries to explain that the dog is from the lab, but he won't listen. The dog brings him yesterday's paper, and Allen just won't believe that the dog is sentient. So, the dog bites him.

His genes begin to mutate, and afraid the dog might have rabies, Allen has animal control officers pick it up, to wait out the rabies quarantine.

A day or so later, Allen turns into a Tibetan spaniel. He does so when his heart speeds up. When it slows down, like when he's asleep, he returns to human form.

So as a dog, he learns much about his children--things they wouldn't share with him because they were afraid of his wrath. For instance, his son wants to be in musicals, but Allen wants him to play football, "just like the old man," even though he hasn't been able to attend any of the football games because he's too busy at work. In fact, he was supposed to attend a parent-teacher conference, and missed it because of work.

So, in the end, he discovers that Kozak is planning to take over the lab by incapacitating his boss. Kozak discovers that Allen can turn into a dog and captures him. But by this time, Allen has convinced his children that he's their dad, not the dog.

So a mass lab breakout ensues. Kozak gets bitten. Somehow, Allen manages to make it to the courthouse in time to tell the judge that Kozak was the real villain all along.

Then they all live happily ever after, taking a vacation to Oahu.

My only problem with this movie was there were a few scenes that were obviously fakey-like at the end when the dog is hanging ten on a surfboard in the ocean. CGI animation can only do so much. The dogs in the movie were gorgeous, but I wouldn't want to have to maintain their coats. All that long hair probably had to be brushed constantly.

I think that most families would enjoy this film. I would say it was all right; however, I don't know if I would want to pay $19.99 to own it. DD enjoyed it, although she was tired and couldn't stay up to watch it all. (She's 6 years old, for the record.) For older kids, they might think it's boring. I thought Tim Allen did a fine job of finding the right doggy mannerisms. Robert Downey, Jr. was good, but he's good in just about every movie he's in. Danny Glover's part as Allen's boss was so small that he was wasted in the film, and so was Jane Curtin as the trial judge.

Rent it if you have nothing better to do on a Sunday night.

Movie Review: "Click"

"Click" stars Adam Sandler as an architect who is angling for a huge promotion to partner within his architectural firm. (His boss is played by David Hasselhoff.) In the movie, Sandler never has time for his family, instead needing to work on important projects to get ahead, to give his family the life he always dreamed of as a child.

So one day, he goes to Bed Bath and Beyond, looking for a universal remote control, but he falls asleep on one of the sample beds. When he wakes up, he sees a doorway that says "Beyond." Walking through the door, he goes into the workshop of Morty (Christopher Walken). Morty gives him a state of the art universal remote control, so new it doesn't even have a barcode yet. Morty offers him this remote control for free, but Sandler is suspicious. However, eventually he takes it, assuming that it will run all of his electronics.

He returns home and starts to get some work done. The dog starts barking and he picks up the remote and presses the volume control. Lo and behold, the dog's volume goes down, and then up when he presses the opposite button.

Days pass, and he is able to fast forward to many unpleasant or "annoying" chores. Every time, he chooses work over family.

Eventually the remote control fast-forwards him one year, until he received his promotion. He's excited at first, but wonders what he missed. Then, without his prompting, the remote control auto fast forwards him another few years, when he receives a promotion to CEO, then six years, then to the end of his life. Hardly without realizing what has happened, he is on his deathbed, finally understanding at the end, that family is more important than work.

Is he given a second chance to make things right? You should rent the movie and find out.

In some ways, this movie was a lot like "Family Man," with Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni. In that movie, Nicolas Cage's character wonders what it would have been like if he had chosen to have a family instead of drowning himself in work.

I enjoyed "Click," and for a somewhat sentimental Saturday night, you might enjoy this movie also. Thankfully, Sandler doesn't do a lot of the cheesy schtick he is known for. In fact, Kate Beckinsale (his wife in the movie) and Christopher Walken outshine him. I am not a Sandler fan, but I did like this movie.

More Movies

"Deep Rising" stars Treat Williams and Famke Janssen. He is the captain of a boat hired "with no questions asked" to take a group of men to a specific location out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She is a beautiful thief aboard a cruise ship, the Aeronautica. The men on the boat were hired to hijack the cruise ship and sink it, so the cruise ship's owner could get the insurance money. Anyway, what no one bargains for are the deep sea monsters that attack the cruise ship and eat all the passengers. It was a fun Sunday afternoon movie to watch.

"The Rescuers" is a Disney movie that first premiered in 1977. I believe I saw this movie in the theater when I was a kid. Bob Newhart voices Bernard, and Ava Gabor is Miss Bianca. The International Rescue Aid Society receives a message in a bottle from a girl named Penny. She has been kidnapped by the evil Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page), and forced to look for a diamond called the Devil's Eye. This is one of my favorite Disney movies.

"The Wedding Crashers" ran a little bit too long. Perhaps that was because we were watching the uncut version. Vince Vaughan is fantastic as Jeremy. He was constantly making me laugh. I enjoyed this movie but there were a lot of clichés and it was kind of predictable. Two guys decide to meet girls by crashing weddings. They are successful, but then they both end up falling in love, much to their surprise.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is not a children's movie. I thought it was pretty violent. I don't like seeing animals hurt, and even though the animals were mythical and/or computer-generated, I didn't like to watch the battle scenes. DH really liked this movie and wants to buy it. I thought it was just okay. I liked the book better. I thought that it was almost like watching "Lord of the Rings." Liam Neeson did the voice of Aslan, and Tilda Swinton was great as the White Queen, but I think she could have been even more evil. I suggest that you see it if you like this kind of movie or have fond memories of the book.

United Flight 93--The Movie

A new movie premiering this month strives to tell the story of United Flight 93, the flight that crashed over Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. (It's rated R and you can see the trailer at the link above.)

Recently there was a tv movie on A&E about the same flight. I didn't watch that, nor will I choose to spend $7 to see a feature-length motion picture. I can't bear to watch news footage from that day. In the Massaoui trial, the prosecutors played news reports and 911 calls from victims for the jury. I couldn't watch reports of the trial either.

I know what happened. I listened to nonstop radio coverage that day, while I was at work. I remember.

What I think is that this film will inspire propaganda and jingoism. "OMG, look at all the Muslims! They're terrorists! OMG! Let's go to war and kill them all!!!!" Then, as now, I don't believe we made the right choices in the aftermath of pursuing those responsible. There are already enough myths and conspiracy theories out there about the towers falling and the flight crashing. I don't suggest that we forget what happened on that ordinary day, but I don't see how this new fictional film will "make things all better."

There are no easy answers. What happened was horrible. We shouldn't forget those who died. But why exploit them? Haven't they been exploited enough?

Movie Mania

I watched several things this weekend, instead of doing anything constructive.

First, we rented "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." This movie was fairly faithful to the book. Remember that this book was longer than any of the three that had preceded it so unfortunately, the moviemakers had to cut quite a bit of it out; otherwise the movie would have been six hours long. It was long enough as it was. I prefer the book over the movie version, but DH enjoyed the movie. He has liked all the HP movies. I thought that the main characters are looking a little too old for their parts, though.

Next, we watched "Saw II." What a disappointment. I was read for something chilling and creepy like the first "Saw" but this movie was not even close. Other than gore, there were very few scary parts, and unlike the first movie, this movie did not leave me thinking.

The third movie I watched was "House of 1000 Corpses." A few years ago, critics raved about this movie, saying it was brilliant. I found it to be a tedious ripoff of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." It wasn't even scary. It was just stupid. I don't know what the point was. Perhaps you have to be a Rob Zombie fan to enjoy it. There was a lot of just plain mindless violence. *shrugs*

Last weekend, I saw an 1960 movie called "Sons and Lovers," starring (a very young) Dean Stockwell. It was based on the D.H. Lawrence book of the same title. The movie tells the story of a young man who is trying to break free of his mother's control, and find his place in life. The young girl he thinks he loves offers up her virginity, which he accepts and then realizes that she can't love all of him. The second woman was a married woman, but she still loved her unfaithful husband, so they couldn't be together. Finally his mother dies and the movie ends, with him having the whole world before him. But he wonders if he'll ever be happy with a wife. Now I need to read the book.

The True Story of "Eight Below"

Read this article if you want to know more about the true story the movie "Eight Below" was inspired by.

I took DD to see the movie this weekend. The dogs are beautiful, just like my own dear Pippy (see pic in previous post). But if you're thinking of getting a Husky, please read the article I linked to, and the other links at the bottom of the article. Huskies are not for everyone, and there are so many in rescue already.

But do go see this movie. It has some gorgeous photography and the dogs are so adorable. Just bring along a pack of Kleenex. :)

A Couple of Movies

We rented "The Brothers Grimm" over the weekend. It's a strange film, filled with some eye-popping special effects. Matt Damon and Heath Ledger star as the famous brothers. Ledger, as Jacob, is ever the dreamer, living in the world of books and fairy tales. Damon, as Will, is the down-to-earth practical brother. During the Napoleonic era, the two brothers concoct a scam in which they chase away (or exorcise) various demons, witches, and other assorted spirits that the uneducated peasant folk of Germany tell them about. Jacob records these stories. They have a couple of henchmen who help them trick the simple folk.

However, there is a real curse on a forest in the Thuringian area (Marbaden Forest). The brothers are kidnapped by a French general who is tired of hearing about missing children from the townsfolk and he tells the Grimms that either they find out what is going on or else he will execute them for their scams.

I liked this movie, but I could see the ending coming a long way off. Perhaps I have read too many fairy tales.


Another movie I watched this weekend was "Mermaids." From 1990, it stars Cher, Winona Ryder, and Christina Ricci as a semi-dysfunctional family. Cher is Mrs. Flax, a single mom, who is trying to support two daughters during the early 1960s. Charlotte (Ryder) is a confused 15-year-old, who wants to become a nun, even though the family is Jewish. Kate (Ricci) is a 5-year-old whose dream is to be an Olympic swimmer.

Mrs. Flax can never settle in one place for long, usually because something happens, like the end of a relationship, that she wants to run away from. Charlotte holds onto a dream that her father may return for her someday, even wearing boots that are too small for her just because it was one of the few presents he sent to her.

Much drama ensues, including Mrs. Flax making out with a 19-year-old guy who Charlotte has a crush on. Charlotte needs her mother to understand her need for roots. It's also as if Charlotte is the mother figure, but she needs Mrs. Flax to become an adult.

I like this movie. It has a happy ending. I always wonder what happened to Charlotte after the movie was over.

More Movies

Well, since I was snowed in this weekend, here are the movies we rented and watched:

"Fantastic 4": Good movie. Very action-oriented. If you like comic-book style movies, you should like this movie. I read that there will be a sequel, with all the original actors except Julian Sands (Dr. Doom) reprising their roles.

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": Makes a better book series than a movie. (I checked this one out from the library. My advice is don't pay to rent it.) It's baffling.

"Kicking and Screaming": This is a predictable comedy starring Will Ferrell. He is a soccer coach for, of course, the losing team, and with Mike Ditka's help, manages to turn the team around. However, he is at odds with his dad (Robert Duvall), and of course, all turns out happy in the end. (Another library rental.)

"Stealth": I think I saw this before, only it was with Val Kilmer on Mars. Hehe. Basically, an AI plane goes haywire, learns to feel, and sacrifices itself for humans. Lots of T&A from Jessica Biel. Rent it only if you have nothing better to do.

Movie Reviews

"Matrix: Reloaded": Hmmm... unsure about this one. We saw this movie on TBS, with commercial interruptions. It had been so long since we saw the first "Matrix" movie that we almost needed to watch it again and then view this second film. We muddled through it, though. It was interesting to see Harold Perrineau (Michael from "Lost"), Gina Torres (various roles on "Angel," "Firefly," "Hercules," and "Cleopatra 2525"), and Hugo Weaving (that guy who played Elrond in "LOTR"). I did not know they were in this film.

Unfortunately, a lot of scenes in this movie were obviously digitally animated, not to mention unbelievable. Ah well. We plan to rent the third movie ("Matrix: Revolutions") soon.

"Robots": This animated movie was a little too predictable for my taste. Basically, a bunch of misfits rescue the world. DD enjoyed it.

"Blade: Trinity": The third movie in the Blade series was nothing I hadn't seen before. Jessica Biel was hot. Wesley Snipes did even less talking than he did in the previous films. The ending seemed ambiguous, leaving room for another sequel or spinoff. There was quite a bit of scientist dumb daughter (explanation) stuff. I did not like the scene in which the original vampire captures the little girl of the blind technogeek woman. Sigh. Could have been better, could have been worse. See it if you have nothing better to do.

Saturday Night at the Movies

This weekend, we rented a few more movies.

"Batman Begins": OMG, this was two hours of my life that I'll never get back! It took an hour just to show Bruce Wayne's training. BORING. I also thought it was predictable. DH liked it, though. I did not care for the movie. I liked the cartoonish style of the first four movies. The best movie is still the first "Batman," with Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

"Kingdom of Heaven": This movie takes place in 1184. Orlando Bloom, as Balian, has to defend Jerusalem from Saladin, the Muslim warrior. DH & I both liked this movie. Not once did we wonder when it was going to end, like we did while watching "Batman Begins." The costumes, scenery, and cinematography were lush and interesting. Bloom certainly beefed up for this role. I did not buy the fact that a blacksmith would know how to defend a walled city like Jerusalem; I also wondered where the Muslim forces got the wood to make siege engines. I felt like Ridley Scott copied the siege towers from the "LotR" movies. Hehe.

There was lots of spraying blood and chopping off of heads. I think this movie reflects upon today's situation in the Middle East without being overly preachy.

The last movie we watched, on Sunday morning, was "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus." DD was enchanted by this computer-animated Barbie movie. She wanted to watch it again and again, but we had to return it. I actually enjoyed the movie also. Princess Annika (Barbie) ice skates and speed skates her way to rescue her family from being turned to stone permanently by an evil wizard. After the movie is over, there are a few "bloopers" scenes, which I thought were hilarious. Unlike other Barbie movies, this emphasized Annika's strength rather than the romantic angle between the male and female characters--thankfully! Little girls will enjoy this film.

Movie Reviews

"Sahara": Is it possible for Matthew McConaughey's teeth to be much whiter? Hehe. This movie was fun to watch, but quite predictable. I had read the book by Clive Cussler years ago. Generally, I like Cussler, even if his books are pretty formulaic. I don't think they travel well to the screen, though. His characters are a little too unbelievable, almost too campy. Cussler's books are filled with tons of description and minutiae that just can't really translate into a movie.

One thing I did not like about this movie was the length--it was almost an hour too long. Again, in a book, the impossibility of each and every crazy scenario works, but not so much in a movie.

Cussler apparently campaigned against the movie:

"A battle over the film's release persists, however, with Cussler saying
that he never approved the movie script - a violation of his contract with
Paramount."

"Cussler recently remarked, 'It's no secret that I sued the producers
because they went right ahead without my approval. All I can say is I don't know
whose book they adapted, but it wasn't mine.' " (quotes from here)

"To End All Wars": This gut-wrenching movie is the story of POWs who are forced to build the Thailand-India railway during WWII. I caught this movie on Starz! and although I knew it would depress me, I watched it anyway. The movie has an uplifting ending, though. It's not just a tale of brutality--it's a tale of forgiveness and redemption, and how if we cannot forgive those who wrong us, we are destined to become just like them.

"Saw": Expecting gore? Expecting horror? Lose your expectations! This movie is really a mystery thriller, much of it told in flashback. Will the two prisoners of the psycho escape their prison, or will they turn on one another? I found this movie to raise some very interesting--and disturbing--questions about how far you would go to keep on living. There are a few freaky scary bits, but nothing that is too gross-out. (DH had been told by a coworker that it was the goriest horror film he'd ever seen--it's not, not by a long shot. I've seen ickier things on the Sci-Fi channel.)

DH & I both enjoyed it, and we plan to go see "Saw II" in the theater.

Mediocre Reviews for F4

USAToday says that 'Fantastic' overstates it. However, that is not going to stop me from seeing hottie Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic). Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom should be decent, too.

Yeah, DH & I going out this weekend. Woohoo!

Movie of the Week

The TVLand network has been running a Movie-of-the-Week week this week. Tonight's movie is the nuclear-holocaust classic, "The Day After," starring Jason Robards. (There will be a marathon of the movies on July 3-4, if you missed it.)

This movie scared the crap out of me when I first saw it when I was a kid. The website says it was the second-highest-rated tv movie of all time. Check it out if you get a chance!

More Movie Reviews

National Treasure: This movie with Nicolas Cage was interesting. The movie trailers that we had seen in the theater made it look more exciting than it was. Typically, it took some conspiracy theories about the founding fathers of the United States and tied them in with some action/adventure. It was an ok movie, but rather derivative.

Anna Karenina: Sigh. Tragic Russian romance. Need I say more? Anna gave up everything for Vronsky--her marriage, her son, her life--but he couldn't give up his social position for her. Sigh.

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: This was not nearly as hilarious as I thought it would be. In fact, I was disappointed. Being a Spongebob fan from way back, I expected the movie to be as droll as the cartoon series, but it wasn't. See it if you like Spongebob.

Movie Review--Chicago

Who knew Richard Gere could sing, or dance, or act!?

Although Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones got all the accolades for this movie musical, Richard Gere deserved some kind of an award for his tap-dance routine during the trial scenes.

Last night, after the amazing 2-hour season finale of "Lost," I flipped on Starz! and caught "Chicago." Now, I don't generally like modern musicals because they don't seem to fit in this time period (for instance, "Moulin Rouge": I'm still wondering what all the fuss was about). The movie is about Roxie Hart, a chorus singer/dancer who kills her lover. (I missed the first fifteen minutes so I'm not sure if she killed him because he was attacking her or accidentally. I think she was attacked.) She tries to have her husband take the rap, but he realizes she was cheating on him, and so she goes to jail instead. Once inside the clink, Roxie meets other notorious female killers like double-murderer Velma Kelly, also a chanteuse, who protest their innocence. With the help of Momma (Queen Latifah), the prison matron, Velma has kept her name in the papers, partly to help her case, and partly for her own need to be famous.

Roxie eventually steals Velma's spotlight and lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere). She gets her day in court, but balks at the things Flynn wants her to do. But then she sees one of the female killers go to the gallows after exhausting all appeals, and she quickly agrees to appearing demure in court.

I can't say I really liked this movie. It was like watching a train wreck. What sexy costumes would the characters appear in next? How many times would we see the women's garters? Perhaps if I had seen "Chicago" in a stage production, I would feel differently. See it if you like musicals or sexy women.

Movie Review--Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

I finally geeked out and went to see the movie this past weekend.

In the first five minutes, I said "wow" about ten times. The special effects were amazing. Except in a few instances later on in the film, I could tell that nothing was digitally animated. I think that Yoda had the best characterization in the film. The actors appeared wooden at times, but I chalk that up to bad dialogue.

One thing I did not like about the film was that Padmé basically dies of a broken heart. That is crap. She had been such a strong character in the first two films that I highly doubt she'd give up the will to live just because her lover turned out to be a monster. She'd go kick his ass!

I think that there were almost too many characters, and since fans liked them all, the moviemakers wanted them all to get some screen time.

It was a satisfying ending to a mythic series, and the best part was that it was light-years better than "Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," thank the gods. Those two movies were not very good plotwise.

See it if you like "Star Wars." If you don't like "SW," then don't bother.

A Couple More Movies

Chinese Box: Jeremy Irons is a photojournalist in Hong Kong, right before the switchover from British rule to Chinese rule in 1997. He suffers from unrequited love for Vivian (Gong Li), a Chinese woman involved with another man. He also suffers from leukemia, with only a few months left to live. He decides to do a story on this girl named Jean he sees on the street (Maggie Cheung), wondering how the switchover will affect her life. She spins him a wild story, but it turns out, she was just a suicidal girl who fell in love with a British boy whose parents didn't approve. They sent him away and she tried to kill herself.

Meanwhile, Gong Li's boyfriend, a fine upstanding businessman, won't marry her. Turns out, he pimped her out when they first fled the mainland because they were broke, and now she's not good enough to marry him and be a proper Chinese wife.

Strange movie about culture clash. I'd say don't bother unless you like Jeremy Irons or Gong Li, or Hong Kong. The cinematography was excellent.


Nemesis Game: This movie stars Carly Pope and Adrian Paul as a couple of people who like to solve riddles, and by solving enough of them, they will get to see the Design. The Design is supposed to be the secret of life. It is apparently why a woman in the film named Emily Gray tried to drown a young boy named Dennis Reveni. But what is never explained is the Design itself. Will Sara (Carly Pope) see the Design? Will she learn why her mother died seemingly pointlessly in a car accident?

The movie held my attention until the end, and then I was disappointed. I also didn't like the scientist's dumb daughter approach when Sara explained to Vern (Adrian Paul) about a monk in India nicknamed Nemesis who liked to solve riddles. Rent it if you have nothing better to do for 92 minutes.

More Movie Reviews

Anaconda: Search for the Blood Orchid: Hmmm... not scary, not even a little bit--unless you are afraid of snakes. I don't like snakes, but this movie was so predictable! I suppose the gargantuan anacondas were a little too fakey for me to be afraid of them. I'd seen this plot a thousand times before in other movies: scientists discover rare plant that only grows in one place; need money to finance expedition; drug company ponies up the money; explorers go to heart of darkest continent (in this case, the jungles of Borneo) to retrieve plant; trip goes awry when boat sinks (plane crashes, car dies, etc.); scary monster starts stalking group; people die; crazed lunatic in group gets too greedy and strikes out on his/her own... etc. etc.

Mercury Rising: Older Bruce Willis flick in which he plays a renegade FBI agent responsible for protecting an autistic child. Willis does have a great screen chemistry with children, and he was good in this movie. I was watching this on the USA network, so there were too many commercials, but it was a decent movie to waste some time watching on a boring Thursday night.

12 Monkeys: Another Bruce Willis flick from 1995 in which he plays a time traveler named James Cole sent to the past to try to stop a deadly virus from spreading over the planet and wiping out 5 billion people. In his future, people are forced to live underground, and he is some kind of criminal forced to take on this mission. He gets sent back to 1990 where is locked in a mental hospital. He meets Jeffrey Goins (Brad Pitt), the son of a virologist.

Brad Pitt is a brilliant actor! See him in this movie, and you will be convinced. I never really thought of him as a great actor before, but he is here.

So, after much back-and-forthing through time, Cole (Willis) becomes convinced that he is insane, and that the "scientists" who control the time machine are just parts of his brain. However, his psychiatrist from 1990, Dr. Railly (Madeleine Stowe), realizes he's telling the truth. But alas, at the end, you don't know how it's really going to turn out--will the virus be released? Will the drama play out again? This movie is about perceptions of reality, the fluidity of time, and déja-vu. I liked this movie. See it if you like post-apocalyptic films, Bruce Willis, or Brad Pitt. You won't be disappointed.

Bell, Book, and Candle: Ok, this Jimmy Stewart/Kim Novak vehicle was on the Turner Classic Movie channel and I had to see it because it was supposedly about witches in Manhattan. Now the movie was made in 1958, and was in 1954 when Gerald Gardner (the father of Gardnerian tradition witchcraft) published his book "Witchcraft Today." I certainly didn't expect to see the "truth" of what the Craft really is, but I was having a hard time keeping from laughing. Kim Novak was convincing; however, she was made to be this sexpot anthropologist from a family of witches (who supposedly were not "human") out to snare poor hapless Jimmy Stewart. In fact, she was ensnaring him because of his fiancée, whom she held a grudge against. Of course, Novak got more than she bargained for.

Seeing Jack Lemmon mumble a few words and make a few gestures to cause a car horn to go off was quite amusing. In this film, male witches were called warlocks, which, as anyone knows, is totally not the case. Male witches are male witches. "Warlock" means "oath-breaker," and anyone styling themselves as such would just be silly, unless they want to be known as an oath-breaker.

Did you know that a "real" witch can't cry and will float if shoved into a body of water? She will stop being a witch if she falls in true love. Uh, yeah, right.

Jimmy Stewart was 50 years old when this movie was made; Kim Novak who was 25. After this movie, he played family men. I guess he'd had enough of the romantic male lead roles.

Movie Reviews *may have spoilers*

Ladder 49: Quite a downer. Joaquin Phoenix portrays a firefighter in the Baltimore fire department. The movie starts in the present and has flashbacks to the past. We see the guy start out as a rookie (proby), and how he meets his wife and has a family. I won't give away the ending, but it's not upbeat. I was disappointed because I felt like I had seen this movie before, only with some other context. I can't think of which movie it was similar to, but I'm sure it will come to me. Don't bother renting it unless you like Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, or firefighting movies.

The Grudge: Ok, DH didn't want to watch this one, so I watched it alone (with all the lights blazing) on Monday night. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a household aide who goes to work for an American (?) family in Japan. She only takes the case because the regular aide didn't show up for work. There were some scary parts to this movie, similar to effects in the movie "The Ring," but it did not disturb me the way "The Ring" disturbed me. Our dog didn't like the meowing sound coming from the tv. Heh. Although the ultimate crime was somewhat predictable, I still got a good scare from watching this movie. I recommend this movie if you like scary films, but not gory films. It was rated PG-13.

Catwoman: This movie was not nearly as bad as reviews say it was. Yes, there was a little too much computer-animated action, but I liked the idea of the Catwoman finding her inner power. Also, it was about a half-hour too long. See it if you want to see what all the fuss was about.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Jessica Biel starred in this movie from 2003, a remake of the classic 1974 film. I haven't seen the original movie, so I can't compare them. However, R. Lee Ermey steals the show as a psycho sheriff. See it for that alone! This movie was quite gory, including a suicide by gun at the beginning. Alas, what ruined the scariness of this film for me was that I had already seen "Wrong Turn," which basically has the same plot. Watch this if you're interested in that kind of film. (FYI: The "massacre" is an urban myth. Tobe Hooper invented it all on his own. Go check out snopes.com for further info.)

The Magdalene Sisters

I watched an interesting and disturbing movie last night. It ended rather sadly, with hardly a note of hope. I cannot even imagine what those women felt or endured. I am once again thankful to live in this era. It's estimated that over 10,000 women served time in these laundries.

"The Magdalene Sisters" is a movie about the infamous Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Most damning is this quote from the CBSnews article: "When the last laundries finally closed, most of the Magdalenes had nowhere to go. Many of them now reside in group homes and convents around the country. For example, a convent in Dublin still holds some women now being cared for by the same nuns who once confined them." In the movie, you see some of these older institutionalized women, one of whom gets sick and dies. One of the main characters, Bernadette, tells this dying woman that "no one gives a shite" about her and that she should just hurry up and die.

And another girl, Crispina, is sent to a madhouse after a scene in which she claims publicly that a priest is not a man of God. Well, hell no, he wasn't a man of God: he'd been forcing Crispina, who seemed to be mentally retarded, to fellate him and have sex with him.

This movie reminded me of "Rabbit-Proof Fence." I just don't understand this type of mindset. I guess I'll never understand how people can single out people who are different, strip them of all rights, and then toss them into slavery without a second thought. Granted, "Magadalene Sisters" paints all nuns and priests with the same brush, rather than showing their side of the story. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Read this review/commentary for an alternative opinion. And here's another review worth reading. Here is a link to a survivor's website.