Hannah Montana is Not Awful

That is not to say it is great either. Bob really, really wanted to go to a movie and he wanted to see this. So we humored him, and found that we were more entertained than by the last 2 movies we saw (Faster & Furiouser, and Knowing). I didn't intend for my blog to turn into the movie review of the week when there are so many other things to blog about -- the state of the economy, war, the Obama puppy (finally!!). But the dismal state of the movie pickings the last couple of years is a really important thing to rant about. I really can't count more than a handful of really good movies since Harry Potter. Oh, Slumdog was great and Dark Knight was pretty good. And Race to Witch Mountain was really fun. And Hannah Montana was not awful. Not a rousing recommendation, but 2 stars for the tween girls and no stars for the rest of us.

Honestly, if you saw Kathleen Sykes on the stage with a blond wig, wouldn't you say, "hey, that's Kathleen with a blond wig!"

I will post about something truly important next time.

Snow Bunnies

I was going to wait a week to do another post after I did another Nicolas Cage post (see below -- my life is sooooo dull), but Bob sent me these pictures and I just had to show everyone that I am not a stodgy as I appear. I can have fun sometimes. Aunty Kate came to visit for our Beavercreek reunion (yes, I said Beavercreek; that is really the name of my high school. It sounds even more ridiculous [that word again] when the slogan was "the home of the battling Beavers." In fact, when I signed up for online banking, and answered the security question that wanted my high school mascot, Zions Bank computer program told me it was an 'inappropriate' response. Eew.)

Anyway, when people come to visit, Bob just loves to take them skiing, even if they can't. So here is Aunty Kate and I having a great time. Who knew us old gals could be so fun.

That really is us, you just need a magnefying glass to see us.
Celebrating getting off the lift without falling!!

We are so much fun.

How do we start?

Yay. We are done!!

Show off!!

to quote Tigger: RIDICULOUS!

When I posted my last blog, I forgot some things I wanted to tell you. By the way, I overwhelm myself when I consider the amount of time I have spent thinking about this silly movie. Anyway, here it is:

1. Everytime some ridiculous plot change occurred, the entire audience began to talk, whisper, chatter, you get it. They weren't buying it.

2. Please see: http://www.cracked.com/topic/118-nicolas-cage/ This will give you all the possible plot devices for almost any Nicolas Cage movie. It is hilariousness epitomized.

Now, if only some one would do the same for Vin Diesel movies. They are all probably the same.

PS -- Ridiculous is the word of the day for all the movies I have seen recently. To name a few: Taken (ridiculous but hugely entertaining according to Kathleen), Race to Witch Mountain (Ridiculous but Awesome!!) Knowing (just ridiculous), Fast and Furious (Not to be confused with The Fast and The Furious, Too Fast Too Furious, Faster & Furiouser, etc.) (Ridiculous but great car chases)

More substance to follow.

SPOILER ALERT!!

I didn't expect my return to the blogging world would be something so banal as a movie review, but I couldn't help myself.

Now I am sure that many of you actually search out information for movies before you go and plunk down $8.00 (!!!) for a movie ticket (and an additional $1 because we thought the movie would be sold out and so we purchased online.) but the Sykes family (at least the parental part of the family) goes to movies based upon what time it is and if it is rated PG-13 or under. So Saturday night, that left us Paul Blart: Mall Cop or Knowing. Now, I had heard enough about Mall Cop to know that it was stupid, so how bad could Nicolas Cage and his new movie be? Of course, I hadn't seen Wicker Man, Ghost Rider, Next, etc. But I had seen Gone in 60 Seconds, The Family Man, Face Off, etc. So I should have known better.

Anyway, this movie simply did not know what it wanted to be. It started out as an eerie horror movie with some little girl obsessed with numbers that she was writing down because her class was supposed to draw what the future would be like and they would be placed in a time capsule. She was interrupted by her teacher so she disappears. The police and the teacher go look for her in the dark school and they never turn on the lights. What is wrong with these people. Haven't they ever gone to the movies. Anyway, they find her, she is locked in the closet and she has written more numbers in her blood in the closet door. Fade to black.

Next we see sad-sack Nicolas Cage with his son. Apparently Mom has died and it is just the two of them. The son wants to believe that Mom is in Heaven. Nic doesn't believe in it. They live in a creepy, run-down, unfinished old Victorian house. Nic drinks too much. At the school the next day, the time capsule is opened and Nic's kid gets the page with numbers. Eerie music. The kid starts to hear voices, but can't tell what they are. Then he sees a shadowy figure standing on the edge of the schoolyard. He looks like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Is this going to be a Vampire Movie? Anyway, Nic looks at the paper and becomes obssessed with the numbers. They seem to have a pattern. They are dates of disasters and how many people have died on those dates. They are all accurate. He goes to his friend at the planetarium who is the voice of reason, says it is all coincidence. Is this a science fiction movie? His sister comes over, tells him he should reconcile with his father who happens to be a Pastor. He says NO. Maybe this is an odd religious movie. The kid keeps seeing these vampirish looking guys who make him see visions of animals running out of some great conflagration. He screams. Are we going to be beaten over the head with a eco-horror story and promises of global warming? Meanwhile, Nic sees a plane crash with 81 people burning up. That was on his list of numbers. He figures out that the other numbers are latitude and longitude. He meets the daughter of the original strange girl who died when she was an adult. Apparently, she was predicting the end of the world and the death of everyone. Nic figures out that this huge sunspot really is going to fry the entire world and everyone in it will die. The little kids say that the Whispering People (the vampires) have told them that they could go with them. Nic figures out that the safest place is back at the home where the little girl (see scene 1) died. He gets there after the Whispering people kidnap the kids, and the daughter of the first little girl dies. He gets there and there is a spaceship!! Again, a sci-fi movie? Are these vampires really aliens. Anyway, the kids want to go with them and Nic breaks down and cries and says ok go. They descend up into the ship and the vampires turn into Angels!! then lots of spaceships fly up into space. Who knew God had such modes of transportation. If you could hie to Kolob!! In an anticlimactic scene, Nic goes back to his dad's house and make peace with the Pastor, who says if it is his time to go then it is his time, but this is not the end. The earth is totally consumed in flames. The we see the children in a field of grain; they run toward a beautiful white tree. The space ships take off from this planet. The audience laughs. We go home wishing we had gone to see Mall cop.

It's Alive!!

I promise, I am still alive. I have been caught up in the doom and gloom that is the current state of the world and it just seems to make me feel dreary. I realized that lots of stuff has happened that no one has heard about: Kathleen's magic birthday, Christmas, etc. I will blog this week and hopefully have pictures to catch everyone up with what it going on in my life.

It's all in a name

I am going to change the names of my dogs. Otto is now Marley, named after the world's worst dog. Otto is probably the world's second worst dog -- actually we are probably the worst owners.

Daisy's new name is Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. I am naming her after the deranged seeing eye b (the movie's words, not mine) in the movie "Everything is Illuminated". She is deranged and kind of looks the same.

Eat My Words

I know I said I would never buy another Patricia Cornwell book, but in my defense, I was going to NYC for the weekend and it (Scarpetta) was on sale at Smiths. Not as good a price as Costco, but I wasn’t there. Anyway, I needed a brainless, quick read for the 5 hour flight to JFK. And that is exactly what it is. Actually, it is not half bad (which probably means that it is only half good). The Scarpetta books have been getting worse and worse since they killed off Benton, but made a decidedly downward spiral to awfulness since they brought him back from the dead with some lame story about having to hide out for some reason I can’t really even remember now it was so dumb. I do want to know who the poor stiff was whose face Scarpetta identified and they cremated.

However, this book does redeem the series somewhat. The characters are much less angry, pissy, and just plain unlikeable. Marino is on the road to rehabilitation and redemption. Lucy is still quite unlikeable. And I don’t think it has anything to do with her orientation. She is just a nasty, snarky woman who wants to be a man. I do think Cornwell needs to look for some new plot devices. How many stalkers and/or colleagues can Scarpetta have that want to possess/kill and or ruin her professionally before it all seems absurd? Also, how about those seemingly random crimes in a city of millions of people that somehow end up being related to each other and the stalker/colleague-killer/ruiner.

But if you are on a long plane ride and need a diversion, this is not awful. It’s not a ringing endorsement, but better than Trace, BlowFly, Predator and Book of the Dead.