Guest Reviewer!

The following review of The Mist is by the Super Mommy.

I like a happy ending as much as the next gal. That said, I’m not one of those people who MUST have a happy ending, who can’t appreciate an ending that is ironic instead of positive, or that is downright unhappy but appropriate. I tell you this so you’ll understand that it’s really unusual for me to have a visceral negative reaction to the ending of a movie. The Mist, however, has an ending that just ruined the movie for me. Director Frank Darabont also wrote the screenplay adapting Stephen King’s popular novella of the same name. Thomas Janes (one of my favorite under-rated actors) plays Dave Drayton, an artist living with his wife and young son in (where else) Castle Rock, Maine. The trouble begins when Dave and his son, Billy, are grocery shopping in town and a man runs into the store, bleeding from the nose and crying out that “There’s something in the mist.” And then the mist rolls in and all hell breaks loose.
For nearly two hours this made-for-TV movie was on its way to ranking among my favorite Stephen King adaptations. It had everything you want in a creepy horror flick – compelling characters, decent dialogue, scary as heck monsters rendered in excellent CGI, believable conflicts among the characters and incisive commentary on the human condition. Forget the fact that Thomas Janes is stellar, or that Oscar winner Marcia Gaye Harden tears up the scenery as the apocalypse-predicting village Bible-thumper. It doesn’t matter that over the course of the film you are inexorably moved to care deeply about these characters. Because they’re going to get screwed, royally, by the end of the movie – and so are you. The Mist has the ONLY kind of ending I really hate – an unhappy ending that’s obviously done for gratuitous shock value and that doesn’t flow naturally from the two hours that preceded it. When an ending seems to serve no other purpose than to let life take a big, ugly, stinky crap on the protagonist, then it’s an ending that serves no purpose.
Don’t see this movie. SPOILER WARNING: (Don’t read this next sentence if you still think you want to see this dismal debacle.)
If you are a parent, you will lose sleep over how this movie ends. I sure did.

All reviews in this blog are by the movie mommy unless otherwise noted.

April Rentals

There Will Be Blood: There will be a waste of time...there will be boring...there will be 2 hours of my life I won't get back. Sorry, to be so harsh but when a movie is nominated for an Oscar and the lead actor wins...I just expect ALOT more from a movie. Daniel Day Lewis, basically, is a one man show in this movie about a success obsessed oil man from the beginnings of oil's importance in this country. Lewis pulls it off and does present an excellent performance but it is not enough for me to tell you to watch this plodding, dark, boring film. Best Picture nominee? What are the Academy members thinking?
M (out of 5 M's) - just for Lewis' performance.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: The problem I had with this movie is that it wasn't what I expected - in a bad way. I thought that with a multi-talented actor like John C. Reilly that I was going to see something more like Taladega Nights, probably better. A fun send up of the music industry with some hints of Walk The Line. Instead it was a total parody of Walk The Line. Don't get me wrong...I have no problem with the art form of the parody. After all, SNL and the Abrahams brothers (Airplane!, Hot Shots!, etc.) have done very well off them. But those were funny. I have to admit I am not into Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie, etc. You really have to have seen all the movies they are making fun because of the lack of creativity and originality involved. Same thing with Walk Hard. If you saw Walk The Line (which I did) then you might find some of the stuff amusing. My husband laughed at the slap stick physical comedy and some gross bits. But I found my mind wandering waiting for something new. I did giggle at one part - when Cox returns home to make things right with his Dad and finds him quietly singing, "The wrong boy died..." Like I said, you have to be there to find the stuff funny. As much as my friends don't like Will Ferrell, they have to admit that his stuff is original. He pokes fun at different industries like Nascar, figure skating and TV news but he does it with is own fresh, pushing the edge of decorum, irreverent and often sick fashion. I was expecting the same from Walk Hard. I have to say that the music in Walk Hard was impressive. If the movie was as original and funny as the songs...this movie might have worked for me.
M (out of 5 M's)

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising: Based on a series of children's books this movie was a pleasant surprise compared to my recent disappointing rentals. Nothing real new here: On a boy's birthday (his 13th) he finds out he is destined to save the world from an ancient darkness that threatens it...oh, and finds out he has magic powers. The nice pace and honest acting make this movie enjoyable for the sci-fi/fantasy fan. It doesn't give everything away but instead counts on some intelligence of it's viewers to pick some things out. It is slow in the beginning as we meet this boy's family and see he is a frustrated teen in a very big family in a country that is not his own (they are American's living in a small village in England). But stay with it as this story unfolds and develops into a cascading climax. I recommend it as something fresh and original...something I yearned to see these days.
MMM1/2M (out of 5 M's)

Becoming Jane: Anne Hathaway plays 20 year old Jane Austin as she learns about love and is frustrated by being a woman in the time she lives in. I think Hathaway is a charming actress who does a great job in this okay vehicle. I love Jane Austin. Gimme Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice and Emma any day and I am happy. The movie tries to show how Austin was inspired by the people she knew and how she incorporated them into her stories. It also tries to be a romance but I feel that fell flat. I would rather has seen a movie about her later years and how she tried to get published in a world where a woman that was independent was a disappointment to her family, a woman could not inherit wealth or earn her own. A movie like that (or like Miss Potter, see "Movie Time!" from July 14th blog posting) I feel would have done Austin more justice than seeing her frustrated in love. I think if you want to know Jane Austin then read her books and/or see the movies based on them. I can recommend a few!
MM (out of 5 M's)

Available as a Rental:
My Boy Jack: Caught this last night on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre and was so glad I did! The film follows the story of Jack Kipling, the son of the famous author Rudyard Kipling whose works(Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King, Gunga Din, etc.) were (and remain) wildly popular during his lifetime. Rudyard Kipling (David Haig, who also wrote and directed) is a strong proponent to England entering WWI and makes inflammatory speech's to the same (even though the King asks him not to). At the same time Jack Kipling (Daniel Radcliffe, yes, Harry Pottter) is trying every avenue available to join the military. Because of his class and status he needs to be an officer and because of his poor eyesight (without glasses) he is refused at every turn. War is finally declared and every young man in the UK is ready to go fight. Rudyard Kipling uses his influence (he works for the military propaganda office) to get young Jack into the Army. He is only 17. It is a sad fact that almost an entire generation was lost during this most ferocious war and the Kipling family is not without it's pain at the news of Jack's status of missing in action. The second half of the story is about the search for news of Jack. Caroline Kipling (Kim Cattrall), Jack's mother, will stop at nothing to find out if her son is alive, including contacting the Red Cross and interviewing damaged soldiers that were at the battle that day. Beautifully filmed and and acted. Available as a rental.
MMMMM (out of 5 M's)

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.