I totally paused!

Starring Isla Fisher & some hot British dude Hugh Dancy

Does anyone but me think Isla Fisher looks really similar to Amy Adams?  I get them confused all the time.  In fact, I thought it was Amy Adams in this movie until I looked it up and discovered I was mistaken.

I thought this was a pretty cute movie, it was at least entertaining and really, the kind of escapist movie I like to watch every now and then.  Good, lighthearted fun and Isla Fisher is totally adorable!  Plus as I mentioned, hot british dude

I actually kind of wish there was more of a moral to the movie to an extent – it’s a good message to give to people, watch out what you do with your credit and don’t shop too much.  In some ways it would have been a good opportunity to help out the actual target demographic of the movie, you know, teach them about debt.

Parts of it do make me jealous though, I wish I had some Louboutin’s of my own!  But preferrably not the actual ones featured in the movie, they were not the cutest Louboutin’s I’ve ever seen.  And I do wonder how many green scarves will be sold as a result of this movie.

I also totally want to read the book now, so I’m guessing I’ll add it to the pile pretty soon.

See this movie if: You like fun girly kind of movies.  There were some good laughs, and Hugh Dancy is pretty cute.

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Krysten Ritter was in 27 Dresses with Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl was in Roswell with Jason Behr
Jason Behr was in a season 2 episode of Buffy called Lie To Me

If you aren’t watching Dollhouse yet, I’m going to ask you one very basic question – why the fuck not?

Even knowing all the while that this show is about Echo and as the main character she is not actually in real harm, I was tense this entire episode.  I mean, to an extent you forget you’re watching a show and that it might be a movie with a still unknown ending.  I really got caught up in it!

This is possibly the first show I’ve seen where Joss has genuinely pulled me in this early.  Obviously, I pledged my support before it even aired, but this episode really convinced me.  With all his other shows, it took a few to really get into it – I maintain that the first good Buffy episode was “The Pack”, which was about 6 in.  Same goes for Firefly, the background show was really the first one I felt was gripping me.  And as for Angel, the episode where Doyle dies might be the first really good one, although I can’t fully remember.

In any case, I genuinely felt pulled in by the trouble Echo was in.  Since she wasn’t programmed to be a fighter in this one, how was she going to escape?  The guy really covered his bases, and although I felt from the start that there was something sinister about him, you didn’t know what he was up to until you were as invested as Echo herself.

Knowing that Joss Whedon has no problem killing off major characers, I was also truly worried that her handler, Langdon, was going to bite the bullet in this one.  Which made me sad, because I am already really liking him.  I think that in itself is testament to how good Joss is at creating loveable characters.  This is just the second episode and I already feel invested enough in this character to worry about him dying?  Fantastic!

And the questions about Alpha, was he behind the whole thing and why is he trying to expose the Dollhouse is very intriguing.  If he wanted Echo dead, why didn’t he just kill her to begin with when he escaped?  What is so special about Echo that everyone loves her so well?

I, for one, am going to watch this episode again.  I really liked it that much, I feel compelled to see it a second time.  And all Joss fawning aside, I really do think this is a good show and there’s no reason people shouldn’t watch.

I like origin stories.  I’d actually love to see an entire episode devoted to Echo as Caroline, her former self.  I’m quite curious to know what got her into the mess she was ultimately in to lead her to becoming Echo.  And I’m amused that Caroline seems suspiciously like Faith to me.  Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, given that Eliza Dushku was, you know, Faith.

I also love that despite how so many shows these days use pre-existing songs, Joss Whedon sticks to original music for his credit sequences.  The music for this one fits really well with the images in the credits as well, which he is always great at.

It’s interesting to me that despite the instructions, all the real people in the engagements talk about the fact that Echo isn’t who she thinks she is.  Why do people not follow the instructions and deliberately try to mess up their situations?

And Echo starting to remember things this early on kind of confuses me to an extent…see, with all the previous shows by Joss Whedon, the premise was really sustainable long term.  But with this one, it’s not as tough they can continually erase and have her remember things indefinitely.  Obviously I do not see all of Joss’ vision, because I don’t think he’d lay all the cards out on the table this early.  And that makes me want to watch even more, knowing that Joss has more than we know about.

The thing I really like is that Eliza Dushku is going to have the chance to show us what she’s made of, this role will give her the opportunity to be all kinds of things.  I’ve always kind of felt like Eliza was a little limited, more cast for being a pretty girl rather than her versatility, so we’ll see about this.

Still, the show has decent action and the first episode doesn’t have too much information like Firefly did.  I can’t make any promises as to this taking over the place in my heart that Buffy has, but it seems like a good show and I’ll gladly watch some more.

As soon as I heard that Katy Perry was coming to town, I knew I had to go.  I was hooked by this girl from the first moment I heard I Kissed A Girl.

Before I go to any show, I always have worries that they just won’t be good in person.  And I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a the live show of a pop artist before, so you can understand my concerns that she may perhaps be over produced and nothing like her album.

However, if you have these fears about Katy Perry, I can put them to rest.  She represented very well in person and even got better as the show went on.  There were a few songs that she didn’t maybe fully go for what was on the album, but that really only seemed to be in the beginning of the show.  And since she was just at the grammy’s, I can forgive and understand this.

I really like her voice, and I’m glad I took the time to see this show.  As a friend said, this is probably the only chance we’ll ever have to see Katy in a venue like this – her tour was probably booked before she became as popular as she is now.  She’ll be filling up huge arenas going forward!

I was also glad to hear her do a couple of cover songs, things that most of her fans probably don’t even know the origins of.  It was actually surprising that she did a cover of a Queen song, it takes a certain amount of guts to try to do Freddy Mercury.  But even more surprising, she was able to do it!  I liked her rendition and kind of hope she puts it out on a b-side or something.

So if you were wondering “Should I go see Katy Perry?” I say yes, do it!  She’s got a lot of energy and shares some insight into some of her songs, if you wanted it.  Fun show, good to dance to, and you won’t regret going…even if your girlfriend makes you

Ah, one of the good old Tori episodes!  I always liked Tori, but was also torn because I liked Kelly with Zack even more.  But, a tough girl on the show is always fun!

It never occurred to me before, but I have a suspicion that my younger brother learned how to be a teenager from watching this show with me.  I swear he is like another version of Screech!  Perhaps a bad comparison, but reminds me of him nonetheless.

Gotta love the fashion of this show.  All those bright colors together, boys in baggy clothes, the big hair.  Fun reminders of the 90’s.

In this episode, Zack volunteers to get the senior class their rings and of course, wants the best deal ever.  Actually, I’m not entirely sure why Zack tries so hard to get a good deal, there doesn’t seem to be anything in it for him this time around, aside from spending less money.  And it’s not generally in Zack Morris’s nature to do something without having a personal interest in it.

So because he’s so eager to get a fantastic deal, he doesn’t stop to think about why someone would sell him the rings for such a low price, and they turn out to be fakes.  I think this episode sparked a many years worry on my part that all rings would turn out to be fake and turn my fingers green.  Imagine my horror when some of them really did!  And now that I think about it, I never got a senior class ring – I am blaming Zack’s mistake for this.

Everyone is pissed that the rings are fake and changing their fingers green, but Zack can’t get the salesman to give them their money back.  They have to come up with a plan to fix this, which involves Screech in a ninja costume.  You can picture it in all its glory in your head.

A sub plot is that Tori wants Lisa to be nice to Screech, so agrees to go on a date with Screech.  Who then thinks that Tori is in love with him and they are Bayside’s hottest couple.  The plan to get the rings replaced coincides nicely with getting Screech to not want to date Tori anymore.  Although I think it’s pretty surprising that Screech wasn’t willing to give up Tori when Zack seemed so sad about not having her…he does claim that Zack is his best friend, after all.  I can’t remember if this is before or after the episode where Zack and Lisa date, because you’d think if it is after that Screech would be totally happy to break up with Tori for Zack’s sake.

Everything of course works out in the end – the class gets new, real rings.  Screech is a big hero so all the girls in the school like him for a day.  Zack and Tori get back together.  And for some reason, Mr. Belding didn’t get involved at all in the whole fake rings debacle – talk about an uninvolved Principal!

I didn’t like that Screech was such a big part of this episode, he should be background sidekick guy more often.  But we can certainly have more of Mario Lopez in a tank top

Starring Dakota Fanning & Teri Hatcher

Since I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book, I didn’t necessarily plan on seeing this movie.  But I got invited by some friends to go see it and figured I might as well.  Much to my surprise, I did actually like the movie and I think it’s pretty cute, if I had kids I’d totally take them to see it.

The fun with a movie like this one is that because the book is such a fantasy, they can have a lot of fun with the big screen interpretation.  You really only have your own imagination to conjure up the images, and since they went with stop-motion animation for this movie, everything can be outrageous and it’s okay, given the context of the book.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the addition of the character Wybie – I generally don’t like changes like this for no reason.  I am going to assume they felt they needed some kind of explanation as to how the Other Mother knew about Coraline, so they added a bit of story that didn’t exist in the book.  However, since everything else seemed so close to how I remembered the book, I’ll let it slide.

I really liked the portrayal of all the characters and found the Other World very charming.  It felt a little like the resolution of everything maybe happened a little too quickly, it felt like a longer time frame to me in the book.  Or because it was June last year that I read it, perhaps I’m just remembering things incorrectly.

Also, I am finding that watching a full length movie in 3D makes me mildly ill.  I don’t know if I will consciously choose to do that again anytime soon.

See this movie if: You read the book, as I thought the movie was better than the book.  It’s also a cute childrens story and undoubtedly fun to take them to.  Some parts are a little scary though, so maybe no kids under like 5 or something.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Ian McShane was on Deadwood with Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant was in Scream 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy Summers

Starring Angelina Jolie & James McAvoy

I got the impression from the previews that this was an action assassination killer type movie, and it was, but it also wasn’t exactly what I expected either.  And to be honest, I’m not even sure what I expected, but I think this movie was distinctly different from what I thought it would be.

I can’t really say if it was good or bad that this wasn’t what I expected, it was just different.  I did like James McAvoy in it – he promised me it would at least be mediocre and he delivered!  His entire storyline, and I guess the plot of the whole movie, was a bit convoluted.  In some ways, I guess it moved too fast or maybe too much was cut out, like it was just missing some explanations.

Perhaps it’s just my romanticized view of what goes into becoming an assassin, but I don’t know that I felt like the reasons Wesley ended up being recruited for necessarily lived up to my expectations.  But really, why would anyone be recruited to be an assassin be brought in for anything less than devious reasons?  So from that perspective, it was right on key.

I also liked Angelina Jolie’s character, just a hardened assassin who does what needs to be done without letting feelings get in the way.  Sometimes I wish I was able to just shut things off like that, it’d be very interesting to be all business all the time.

The effects were pretty cool and toooooootally make me want to bend bullets like that!  There’s a lot of action and fun car/people chases, so it’ll definitely keep you entertained the whole movie.

See this movie if: You like action movies, or are looking for a good escape.  The movie isn’t going to make you think, but who needs that all the time!

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Terrance Stamp is in Smallville with James Marsters
James Marsters played Spike on BTVS

Starring Brad Pitt & George Clooney

Although I don’t really think I get this movie, I did think it was funny.  The trouble with Coen brothers movies is that I really do think a lot of the time that they’re too smart for me, but many of them don’t capture my interest enough to actually want to watch again.  And honestly, I think I probably would watch this again, but more of a it comes on cable kind of thing, not an actively go out and try to see it.

This is not to say it was a bad movie…like I said, it made me laugh.  I especially thought Brad Pitt was hilarious, the funniest I’ve seen him in quite awhile, and Francis McDormand being obsessed with plastic surgery was very amusing.  Their misunderstanding about the disk, taking it to the Russians, all very funny.  And pretty much everyone in the show is a little crazy, which makes for great exchanges of crazy.

I think the reason I didn’t like it as well as I could have is just that I keep hoping for the Coen brothers to put out as funny a movie as The Big Lebowski.  That’s by far my favorite movie of theirs, and no comedy from them since then has been as good.

See this movie if: My guess is if you’re a fan of the Coen brothers, you’ve already seen it.  It’s definitely another interesting addition to their catalog.  And like I said, funny movie, so good if you want a comedy.

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
George Clooney was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore was in Donnie Darko with Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal was in Rendition with Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon was in Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar
SMG played Buffy Summers

Starring Emma Thompson & Dustin Hoffman

This was a cute enough movie, and I liked it, but I really wanted to love it and just didn’t.  It’s the kind of movie that should make me want to cry with happiness at the end, yet I got more emotionally involved in Roger Federer losing the Australian Open than I did in the story of Harvey and Kate.

First, I just didn’t feel that sympathetic to Harvey at all.  I mean, his life is sad and it’s too bad that he doesn’t have a good relationship with any of his family, but I just didn’t find myself caring like I should have.  And for some reason, I was really bothered by the implication that he had never gotten over his ex-wife.  Who holds onto someone for that long?  His employment issues also seemed to be his own fault, so I had a hard time feeling bad for him when he was let go.

As for Kate, I didn’t really see why she let Harvey in so easily.  Personally, I adore Dustin Hoffman.  But Harvey wasn’t charming and I think it was kind of on purpose – he was supposed to be a loser.  So I don’t blame Dustin, but I do have a hard time seeing this kind of thing occur.  Or maybe I’m just so far removed from being that kind of person that I can’t see how I’d let a Harvey into my own life if I was perfectly happy without him.  Or maybe Kate really *did* want someone and was as interested in dating people as her mother seemed to be.  And speaking of Kate’s mother, who is THAT close to their mom?  Seriously, multiple calls a day?  I couldn’t do it.

I did, however, like the storyline with the mom and the maybe serial killer Polish nextdoor neighbor.  That was pretty funny

See this movie if: Emma Thompson was cute in it, and she’s generally worth watching.  However, I don’t think this is a movie you *need* to see in the theatres, it’s all good if you wait for DVD or cable.

My Rating: 3/5

Six Degrees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Dustin Hoffman was in Sphere with Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber was in Scream 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar was Buffy Summers