A Few Of My Favorite And Not So Favorite Things - Reading And Watching

Batman Beyond - I LOVE everything about this animated TV series from the voice actors, writing, character design, color palette (red skies set the exact mood) and the music. This version of Batman is set in the future and Bruce is an old man guiding a teenage younger version of himself in a tricked out Batsuit. Whenever I watch a Batman movie, TV series or read a comic, when Bruce is handsome, I enjoy the story even more. After watching this well crafted series over and over during the years, this was money well spent.

 I was so excited when I saw this Dr. Strange DVD on the shelf at the library. It goes into much detail about the origins of Dr. Strange. Not knowing any of his back story, it was interesting learn more about a character I enjoyed reading in The New Avengers comics.  The action scenes were the best part of watching the show. It is not often you get to see how a group of magically powered superheroes would fight each other. The worst thing was how long the story was bogged down in Strange's sad and arrogant past. I wanted the plot to be more about magical fight scenes with the evil baddies. Not a good storyline balance at all.

 Hanna is a young female action hero with an twist. The plot is not necessarily original. It seemed by the end it was a movie to set up other movies. After listening to the commentary, the movie as written made a lot more sense. I could get the "story tale" motif after the director explained it. Lots of very well choreographed fight scenes that were awesome to watch. Loved seeing a female lead know how to take care of herself.

A sequel made for no reason than it will make more money for all those involved. The first Pirates of the Caribbean was the best and the second was good too. The Spanish sailors seemed really interesting but they really were not in the story very much. I am a huge mermaid fan so I was very disappointed by the "woman in fake fish tails" boring design. Don't get me started on the mermaid "attack teeth". I was glad I didn't pay money to see this at the movies.

I got inspired to take up my knitting again after seeing a character knitting in a movie recently. This is the video that taught me how to knit. Very good instruction. Fun to watch and some danceable music too. I checked out from the library and enjoyed it so much I purchased it. This DVD will be perfect for anyone of all ages to learn how to knit. I just re-watched it as a refresher and it was knitting again in no time.

 The first three Shabby Chic books Rachel Ashwell brought out were my favorite. I'm not a fan of the Shabby Chic decor as much as I was in the past. Love the soft pastel color palette but creeped out by the scraped off painted furniture. In this book, the version of Shabby Chic is mixed up with western items. I just didn't like the two styles together. 

Too many stories of drug abuse and cheating on their girlfriends and wives, I didn't enjoy reading this book at all. For some reason, I have been reading a lot of books about the sordid lives of rock stars. The waste of life, talent, money and time don't not make for a positive reading experience. It does jolt me back into the reality of what it would be like to date a musician (some not all of course). It takes a strong person to live a healthy productive life on the road in a band and a strong person to be in a relationship with that person. 

What have you been reading and watching lately?

Thanks for reading!

Four Movie Marathon - A Few Thoughts

 I had heard this was a confusing movie. 

There was way too many storylines to try to keep up with at one time. My favorite story was the one set in the future and it wanted it to be the entire movie. I didn't know until the ending credits, the brother (and now) sister who made The Matrix were involved in this movie. This explained the strange bad copy of  Keanu like character in the sci fi story. The makeup and wigs were terrible. I am so glad I saw it for free. Thank you public library.

 I watched this movie in reverse. It was supposed to be amazing and won a lot of awards.

 A guy in a boat with a tiger? Hmmmm I decided I wanted to see how this movie ended to decide if I would take the time to watch the entire film. Verdict? Yes this was a very good movie. Seeing it from the end then rewinding  it a bit then some more then all the way to the beginning was the only way it made sense to me. Best part of the movie? The visual effects. Very creative and awe inspiring. 

This is a story about how to survive tragedy mentally and physically. I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was at times. But to be honest, I would not have had the patience to see this at the movies. Seeing the visual effects on the big screen would have been very cool but I would not want to pay to see this movie.

 I have a thing about bad wigs and makeup in movies. 

If I see a picture of a character in an upcoming movie and the wig looks terrible (Halle Berry in a past X Men movie and that horrible Cat Woman movie) I will not want to see the movie. When Salt came out a couple of years ago, I remember looking at the trailer thinking those are terrible wigs on such a beautiful woman. The plot is interesting with lots of twists and turns. I love a good spy movie. 

There is a scene with fantastic special effects makeup (I will not give it away) that is absolutely the best character transformation makeup I have ever seen done. Overall this is a very good action movie.

Bad Lieutenant is the best movie out of the four films I watched.

 Nicolas Cage is such an amazing character actor. I love it when an actor completely disappears into the character they are playing. This movie is about when bad circumstances in life can lead you to making bad decision after bad decision. Watching this movie was an adventure into the head space of a drug user.

 It didn't go overboard with the unique visual touches but it was just enough to make you think and to scare you. This film is about the drug business and drug addiction. Both of these things can ruin your life, your career and your family's life. I think this might be my favorite of all Cage's films.