Reviews Are In

Sorry for my absence! I had a vacation and lots of catching up to do.

I have to start out my reviews with some can't miss TV. You must tune in every Sunday night to HBO and watch the John Adams mini-series. Besides Paul Giamatti's brilliant performance, to see the birth of our nation in all it's beauty and tragedy makes it educational as well. A country needs to know what it is fighting for when it says it is "fighting for freedom around the world." It is important to know the real pains and politics of freedom's birth in this country first.

Once : Give this movie a chance! I watched this movie with my husband and another couple and the other couple left half way through. Maybe I would have as well if I hadn't seen the show stopping performance at the Academy Awards of the winning song "Falling Slowly" sung by the movie's two leads - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. I was so impressed by the song that I began listening to the soundtrack at work (thanks to a co-worker that had it). I'm hooked!

I think we are so visually stunned by movies like Transformers and No Country For Old Men that we don't want to spend some time just watching a quiet movie that is more than long music video. Once is low budget but sweet and follows the journey of a musician who goes from performing on the street to a studio, at the behest of young woman, who hears his brilliance and heartache that he belts out in every tune. There is A LOT of music - be prepared. I already loved the music so I enjoyed seeing it performed by the stars and by Hansard's real band The Frames. Don't look for biting dialogue and big effects. Just enjoy these regular folks doing what they love.

MMMM (out of 5 M's)

30 Days of Night : I am not a horror movie type at all but this one looked good and seemed to have some credibility with Josh Hartnett in the leading roll. Based on a graphic novel series, this movie delivers. It delivers the story, the gore and the jump out of your skin effect you want from a good scary movie.

The film is about an Alaskan town that is as far north as you can get in the US and every year they have 30 days without sunshine. Hmmm...let's see...who do you think would love a town with no sunlight and humans...you guessed it - Vampires. Our vampires at lead there by a Renfield type character who prepares the town by burning cell phones and murdering sled dogs. The population of the town drops significantly during the 30 days because some folks just can't take the darkness and fly out. Slowly, but surely, the town gets cut off from the rest of world and with no power...the are in the dark. After a nice build up and incredibly gory scene of vampires run amok, we see a few stragglers trying to sneak around town and wait out the 30 days. Good acting and story really make this movie worthwhile.

MMM1/2M (of 5)

No Country For Old Men : Motion Picture of the Year? I don't know about the merit of that because I haven't seen all the others but it is a good movie. It would help to already be familiar with the Coen brothers' work like Fargo, Intolerable Cruelty, Miller's Crossing, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Bad Santa and Raising Arizona - to name a few. Nothing about this writing, directing, producing (and so on) of this team is predictable. This movie is no exception.

No Country For Old Men is a carefully woven tale of a few good guys, lots of bad guys and even more worse guys. The cast is first rate with Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Oscar winner Javier Bardem and many familiar actors in supporting roles. The strange fates of the leads and spurts of dialogue will keep you wanting to watch until the end - even though you know it cannot end well for most of those involved. I don't think this movie is for everyone.

MMM (of 5)

Michael Clayton : This movie will not disappoint. I still have a few Oscar nominated movies to see but I think this was better than the winner. George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton (Oscar winner for her role in this movie) are brilliant in this story of those that are in the most hated profession in the world - Lawyers. Tom Wilkinson delivers a truly award winning performance as a top corporate lawyer who goes over the edge and George Clooney, as Michael Clayton, who has to clean up the fall out. Michael Clayton is basically a "janitor." He goes in to clean up messes left by other lawyers, firms, companies and situations. No one is really sure what it is he does...but he gets it done. The beginning of the movie (the first 10 minutes) will keep you wondering that you may have missed something but you will find out what it was as the movie progresses. All your questions will be answered. This movie is filled with surprises and isn't just some kind of lawyer drama - it has real intrigue and suspense.

MMMM (of 5)

Am I Worth It?

"Dear Lord, lest I continue my complacent way, help me to remember that somewhere, somehow out there a man died for me today. As long as there be war, I then must ask and answer, 'Am I worth dying for?'" - A wartime prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt

When this Global War on Terrorism started the front page of every paper in America would have news of a soldier dying. Now, try and find it. Go ahead. Leaf through your paper and see if you can find their names. If it was someone that lived or graduated high school in your newspaper's readership area, then yes, you will find it on the front page. "Local Soldier Dies."
I live near a major Navy base that employs young men that do the most dangerous job in the Navy. The are Navy SEALS. Even among those of us that are also in the Navy - they stand out. They carry themselves differently, look differently and are respected differently. They are respected greatly. Because of this, the front page news is that someone that served on my base was killed. They are from this base which makes them from here. In the past month we lost three SEALS. Two of them were Chiefs. All under 30 years old. I might have known them. Seen them at the bowling alley with their family, the commissary (grocery store) or in line at the personnel department getting an ID card. It didn't hit really hard until last week.
Last Friday, a dreary drizzly day, I saw a sign that said "SEAL Memorial." I thought it was a memorial service at the Chapel. It was more than that - it was a funeral. I drove by the base Chapel on my way to work out at the gym and I saw something I will never forget. Even now I tear up at the thought.
There in front of the Chapel was a hearse and behind the hearse were eight Navy Chiefs lined up on either side of the gurney for the casket. They stood there in the steady rain, waiting. They were wearing their dress blues which looks like a black double breasted suit with a white shirt and black tie. They wore their white dress hats with black brims. In the rain. On the sleeves of their jackets were their rating badges (rank insignia patch) and they were gold. To wear gold means they have over 12 years of good conduct. On their sleeves were the gold hash marks indicating years of service. Most of them had over 4 hash marks (16 years of service). They stood in the rain doing what SEALS do. The job that no one else wants to do. The hard job.
Navy SEALS don't see the signs that say, "Bring Our Troops Home!" and think the signs refer to them. For the SEAL it's about the mission. Everyone in the Navy has a mission. But not like the SEALS. They train, eat, drink, live and die the mission. They are totally focused and doing a job. They volunteered to be SEALS and went through the hardest training the military has to offer. Most don't make through the training. Those that do - wanted it more.
Last week three Navy SEALS were remembered for their final mission. And there will be more.
We need to remember them and remain worthy.

When there's Nothing on...

The movie mommy's guide to surviving the TV writers' strike and the aftermath.

"250 channels and nothing on." Truer words have not been spoken until this writers' strike and it will be a month before anything new comes on now that it is over. In general it is hard to find something worthy of a few nightly hours of your life. I have several favorite shows I adore but otherwise the TV can be relagated to being the "idiot box."
Since the strike it has been tedious. Even my favorite shows are airing episodes I have already seen - several times. And movie rentals are also lacking - except for an incredible bright spot like Sunshine and the suprising Eastern Promises. Let's face it...something needs to be done.
By calendar and coincidence TV is not a total loss this month! Here's why...
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is showing it's month long salute to the Oscar's. Everyday it pays tribute to an Oscar category by showing movies that have been either nominated for or won that award. Gems like It Happened One Night, The Quiet Man, Roman Holiday, Hello Dolly!, On Golden Pond, Some Like It Hot, Stalag 17, The Dirty Dozen, Gone With the Wind and Poltergiest to name a few. It Happened One Night was especially enjoyable to watch. My husband had never seen it and I was afraid it would be too old and corny for him. But the physical comedy and constant witty banter is enough to make anyone have a belly laugh. It is an often immitated but never duplicated classic that has rarely been topped in the romantic comedy genre (as it is now known). Any one of the above named movies are enough to make you forget that there was anything else worth tuning into. Check TV Guide for more.
Believe it or not, HBO is actually showing some great stuff! HBO is usually worthless with the exception of the sports related news programming and live boxing. In the past month HBO has been showing A Good Year, ALL the Star Wars movies, The Devil Wears Prada, The Lake House, Hollywoodland, Superman Returns, American Beauty, King Kong (recent), The Sentinal, The Last Mimsy, V for Vendetta, Take The Lead and Dreamgirls to name a few. Some of those might also be to your taste. I can recommend all of them. And there are others that I am not into but you may not have seen.
Between TCM and HBO, I really haven't had to do much renting. Because there actually IS something on tonight!

Potty Mouth

This isn't just an entry about finally successfully potty training my 3 years, 10 month old son...it's about what I have learned as a parent and person. I feel the way that someone learns and problem solves is the true insight into a person and who they are. In this case - the potential of who they will be.
I consider myself to be a natural teacher. I feel that I can teach anything I know to someone else and better than it was taught to me. My confidence was unwavering...until I had to work on potty training my son.
There is undue pressure on all parents to have their child potty trained in order to go to school or be moved up into the next level at daycare. It is an incredible pressure that just can't be understood until you have gone through it. Your entire worth as a parent becomes potty training. Failure means your child won't be ready for school on time, be left behind by his peers and be left behind FOREVER! Okay, a little dramatic but it becomes a crazy sense of urgency to get this natural process of growing up complete.
I never worried about potty training til my son was about 2 1/2 and then I realized I had better start reading up on this. We had a little potty in the bathroom of our house since my son was 1. He would sit on it, rarely. I thought, hey, I can do this. I mean how hard can it be? I know how to use a toilet. Everyone I know uses one successfully. I was ready to hit it head on. I bought a book "How to Potty Train your Child in just One day." It's a great book. Really talks to parents about all the pressures we are put under to get our children potty trained by a certain age. I followed the procedure in the book exactly. I really thought my son was ready. He wasn't. That attempt was about a year ago. I had little success and lots of laundry. I felt defeated. I was so confident that I could teach him.
Various other events took place to thwart my efforts. I went active duty in the Navy and I was separated from my children (on and off...mostly off) for about 6 months. Anyone who watched/babysat my children swore they would have him trained in a week. Yeah, right.
And it goes without saying that there is TONS of advice from people who don't have kids or those that do and claim there child was potty trained a year old. Yeah, right.
My son, being who he is, does things at his own pace. He crawled at 11 months, walked at 14 months and spoke (more than his native Klingon) at 3 years old. He is not on any one's schedule but his own. I know that about him. He is a creature of habit. My mother called him mini-"Monk" (after the OCD TV detective of the same name) at an early age. Things had to be just so. If not, this lead to great tantrums and we would never know why (he couldn't communicate in English clearly enough). He likes to know how things work and he likes a procedure. I don't think I took these things into consideration when initially training him. I just thought - he's getting trained darn it!
A few months ago he started going to a home daycare where there is a boy a few months younger than him that is also going through potty training. This sense of friendly competition and encouragement had caused my son to turn a corner.
My son had been dry in the morning for over a month and through is naps. A sign a child is ready for potty training. He had been using the potty at the home daycare during the day (to urinate only). Rarely at home and he was still in pull ups. About a week ago my son came home and said he needed a "clean diaper." He insisted. I knew why. There was one part of bathroom business he didn't want to do in the potty. Once I put the pull up on him - he did what he had to do. That's when I decided - anyone old enough to ask for a clean diaper is old enough to use the potty. The next morning I put him in underwear and he hasn't been in a pull up since. Dry all night and day. He does everything in the potty now. No wet accidents and rarely any of the other kind.
My son will do things at his own pace. I should have remembered that. And I think I forget that like any other human being he has a will of his own. I need to keep this in mind as I teach him the other things he must know to move successfully through an uncertain, often unforgiving yet filled with possibilities world we live in.
Needless to say we are all extremely proud of him. Almost giddy with delight. He is also proud. This was not the impossible task that it seemed to be - just 2 weeks ago. It was part of being a parent and a child.
And suddenly, my son appears to be older. He is tall and lean and carries himself like a child and not a toddler. A little man.

Pushing Daisies

There are not many shows on TV that I consider "must see TV." I have written about most of them like The Closer and Criminal Minds. My new favorite (since it's debut in the fall) is Pushing Daisies.
Pushing Daisies is a hard show to describe...smart writing, slick acting, comedy, romance and oddness...all blend with technicolor sets to create an indescribable TV experience. Really, I can't describe. I could try but it sounds to weird to work.
Our hero, Ned, discovered at a young age that he could bring things back to life by just touching them. And can return them to dead by touching them again. The hitch is that he has to make them dead again within 2 minutes or something or someone else will die in it's place. None of this is explained.
Ned owns a pie restaurant, The Pie Hole, in which he serves pie and conducts business with his private detective buddy (who knits when he is stressed). Their business is that Ned touches murder victims, finds out who killed them and collects the reward money. Until one fateful day a murder victim is Ned's childhood sweetheart, Chuck, whom he touches and brings back to life. He leaves her that way. They are madly in love but can't touch each other. Chuck was raised by her Aunts (retired synchronized swimming stars) who don't know she was brought back to life.
There are way out plot lines, fast dead pan dialogue and an excellent cast led by Lee Pace and Anna Friel and supported by such veteran actors as Chi McBride, Ellen Greene and Swoozie Kurtz. There is much more the show than what I have described because you just have to see it to believe it.
This program wins my vote for every award shows' "best new television series" and "best comedy series of the year."
This is a visual taste sensation that is not to be missed on Wednesday nights. Bon appetite.

Viva La Long Johns!

I'm cold. And I am going to continue complaining about it being cold...until it is warm. I shake my fist bitterly at the sky as I brace myself against face biting snow flurries and strong winds off the water. I'm cold.
With that being said, I am challenged by being a cold weather mommy. I never had to worry about coats, gloves, hats, boots, etc. I lived in Florida for 10 years and my son spent the first 3 years of his life in shorts and t-shirts. But now we live in Virginia - where it is cold.
I am challenged by things that seem silly like, getting a toddler in a car seat with a big winter coat, being late because of said bundling and making sure the kids are warm enough or not too warm. I never watched the weather forecast so much in my life. It's like every day I am expecting a hurricane (pretty much that is all we worry about in Florida). I watch and wonder about: Do I put them in a turtleneck or long sleeve t-shirt? And will the temperature drop 20 degrees as soon as it gets dark? (which is when I pick them up). I also think about running them out to the car with no coat - to make it easier to buckle them in or do I worry about them sweating under those coats? We won't even get into the allergies, ear infections, runny noses, coughs and pneumonia that all this winter weather has brought us.
The cold weather is a small concern on the grand scheme of things but something the movie mommy never had to worry about before. As for myself...I wear long johns. Yup, nothing fancy. No silk ones for me - just the usual waffle pattern ones. I wear them to work under my uniform, much to the amusement of my co-workers. And in an office with no heat - I have the last laugh.

Movie Reviews

AT THE MOVIES:

National Treasure - Book of Secrets: I loved the last National Treasure movie. So, if you are like me - you will love this one as well. Nicholas Cage and company go on another treasure hunt with secrets hidden in things like the desk in the Oval office and a desk in Buckingham Palace. This of course means Cage has to get access to these locations. He also has to get information out of a book that only the President of the United States has access to or knows about - the "book of secrets." This book contains stuff like Area 51 information and JFK assination facts. The reason our heroes are on this quest is to clear the name of Cage's character's ancestor who is accused of helping James Wilkes Booth assinate President Lincoln. This keeps everyone very busy and eventually leads to Native American treasure that was supposed to help the Confederates during the Civil War. The story gets a little convoluted but is great fun from beginning to end.
MMMM (out of 5 M's)

Enchanted: This sweetheart of a movie is sure to be fun for everyone in the entire family or even if you don't bring them...you will still enjoy it! The premise is kind of silly but not unique - a cartoon character is transformed into real person in NYC. The thing about this fish out of water scenario is the fact that Disney is not afraid to poke fun at itself. Our heroine assumes everyone is as nice as they are in her fairytale world and that leads to a reality check while at the same time making harsh citizens of the live action world soften up a bit. There are some great tunes as our gal is not afraid to just break into song and enough humor to make adults laugh. This is not really a kids movie - maybe kids over the age of 10 but there is some humor they might not get. Bring your suspension of disbelief with you and you will leave feeling good and...like singing a happy song.
MMMM (out of 5 M's)

ON VIDEO:

Stardust: This was a fun movies that fans of The Princess Bride, Ella Enchanted and other fun fantastical movies should enjoy. The knowledge that an unknown world is beyond a stone fence in England is to much for a young man to ignore and he decides to tempt fate and venture accross. The result of this short journey will lead his own son and a fallen star on an adventure that involves witches, kings, ghosts and pirates. Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfieffer are standouts and are appearing to have a great time of it. Just enjoy.
MMM (out of 5 M's)

The Waitress: The fact that the only "star" in this movie is Kerri Russell should be a strong indication of lameness...but I read the box for the movie and it used words like "sassy" and "comedy." It was also supposed to leave me "inspired." Well, after induring this movie for 2 hours - I found myself hardpressed to find any of these items. Russell plays a young woman that works at a pie shop and gets pregnant by her very abusive husband. She ends up having an affair with her married obstetrian. There are some amusing things that happen in this movie like the fact that everytime she feels a strong emotion she thinks up a pie to go along with it, "the baby is keeping me up all night pie," "I hate my husband pie," etc. In the end Russell's character does have an epiphany after having the baby - which is good. But inspired? Sassy? Comedy? Nope. I guess I was really expecting those things. If they said "drama" then I wouldn't have been waiting for it to be funny. And Kerri Russell cannot carry a movie at all.
M (out of 5 M's)

Land of the Blind: Two hours of my life I won't get back. This total dog isn't worth the space in this blog to mention. Ralph Finnes and Donald Sutherland are totally wasted in this weird movie.
Zero M's