...Elementary my dear Watson!

Went with some of the fam to see Sherlock Holmes on Christmas day. I know I've totally slacked on the movie review, I've actually been trying to make some money in December, it is not a good month for sales :-)

This is definitely not your father's Sherlock Holmes movie and I liked it all the more because of it. Is the plot unique? No. Is the story particularly compelling? Not really. Do the actors turn in Oscar-caliber performances? No, but I don't care for Oscar-type movies anyway! Is the movie, REALLY COOL?!?!?! YES! Robert Downey Jr. is easily my favorite actor right now, he is just cool and his sarcastic, devil-may-care attitude with all his recent characters (in Ironman, Tropic Thunder, and now Sherlock Holmes anyway) is very entertaining. Is it the same character with different accents? Yes. Does he do the accents very well? Yes! matt Damon could take a lesson. Jude Law, who has never even been on my radar for good actors, since I'm pretty sure I've never seen a movie with him in it (???), is really good in this and plays off of RD Jr, perfectly as the more proper, staunch (yet, with a very adventuresome side) Watson. And Rachel McAdams is just hot, no matter her role and she does not disappoint in this movie either.

The action is good, I really like how Holmes goes through his thought process while fighting, and while deducing a situation, and I really like how he just throws himself into the fray and gets after it. Not a lot of sitting around mulling things over, just action and taking care of business.

The ending to the movie isn't particularly compelling, but there will be additional movies, which is cool, and Moriarity will be the antagonist, as it should be (for anyone familiar with the classic stories). So, I'm very much looking forward to that. For sheer entertainment value, which is about the sole reason I go to the movies, I give this a solid 4.5 - and it was really fun going with the fam on Christmas Day. Good times, good times!!!

Oh, Ironman II is coming this summer!!

YESSSSS!!!!!

Christmas 2009

Here are some pics from Christmas Morning - mostly for Jim and Jill in New Zealand, but feel free to enjoy them even if you're not in New Zealand and Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

The hat was Griffin's Stocking with BK gift cards, lemonheads candy, Beef Jerky (for dad :-D ) and Bakugan.
The loot before the carnage
Bakugan

Nerf Tag - so the boy will actually run around a little! :-)

Nintendo DSi and holder but Santa was a little color blind and got a pink holder - it's being traded in ASAP
Books from Grandma and Grandpa H
Cool History book from Dad
DSi games from Grandma and Grandpa H
Mario Kart with steerin wheels from Dad
All the loot
Immediately playing with the DSi - it takes pictures too, so he was loving that.
Everyone going through new presents
BLAKERS!!!!
Auntie Amy with the kidlets
Kaja!
Jax
Gramps too.
Miss Q

Griff and the DSi

Invictus

Went and saw Invictus the other night at the District. Yep, I love the District - holds a special place in my heart - I think from the time I ran out of the theater to get the car in the pouring rain and ATE it on the slick cement between the doors and the fountain they have there. It's a pretty funny story, if you haven't heard it, I'll be happy to tell you in the proper setting, because it's pretty comical - well, I can laugh about it now.

ANYWAY, I knew this story before the movie came out, I remember South Africa shocking the Rugby world and winning the World Cup in 95 over the mighty All Blacks of New Zealand, and the positive effects it had on post-apartheid South Africa. GREAT story, to say the least.

The movie is moving. It is a great story, as mentioned. I really enjoyed it.

BUT, as you may know if you read my reviews, it's rare that I can't find something off about even really good movies and this one definitely had somethings that bugged me. 1) Matt Damon's South African accent - HORRIBLE!!! Very distracting, and just ridiculous. Back in my consulting days, one of my bosses at PwC was South African, so I'm familiar with the accent, and Matt Damon missed it across the board. 2) The production value of the film is oddly poor. I thought maybe it was because it was shot in South Africa, but was then informed that Sector 9 was filmed there and was excellent, so who knows. For some reason it felt like it was shot in the 70's or 80's. Not a huge deal, but still strange. 3) the Soundtrack is ridiculous, and not good ridiculous. Truly lame. If you've spent any time on my blog, you may have seen the poem "Invictus" on the side bar (from whence came the name of the movie, because Mandela in his 27 years of imprisonment found solace in the words of the poem). They tried to make a song out of it and it is just bad, like movie of the week on The WB bad. Not sure why a movie with big name actors, directed (or produced) by Clint Eastwood, has such poor quality? Anyway...

So, overall, despite the aforementioned drawbacks, the movie is really good. I would have liked some more Rugby scenes, but I imagine Rugby is a hard sport to simulate, so there isn't a lot of really good action, but there's enough that when the Springboks win the match with the All Blacks, you get chills - at least I did. It was really awesome. So, I'll recommend this movie. It's not quite as touching as the Blindside, but uplifting in other ways, so I enjoyed it. I'll give it 4.25 out of 5. I don't think anyone will be disappointed if they go see it.

Hopefully, the next review will be of Sherlock Holmes, it looks awesome - Christmas Day!!!

Jazz Games '09

I love going to the Jazz games. Big surprise. I've been to 3 or 4 this season, and I just love it - can't get enough of it (fortunately they've won each game - my feelings might be a LITTLE different if they lost, but I still enjoy going...) By the way, THANK YOU to the people who have invited me to go with them to games, I truly appreciate it :-)

Last night was SUCH a great game!!! The Jazz fell behind early and were down by as many as 15 in the second quarter and fought back to 8 at halftime.

Halftime for this game wasn't nearly as funny as the Memphis game. At the Memphis game, they had two contestants dressed up in those puffy "sumo wrestler" suits and they had to run blue or red balls over to a barrel and deposit them. The contestant with the most balls of his/her color in the barrel won some prize. Little Bear, was in the way trying to slow the contestants down a little, to make it a little more challenging. It's pretty funny (for those of you who haven't seen little bear, he's hilarious). Then, Big Bear decides to get in on the action and lays a hit on the red contestant, and this person was down for the count, while the blue contestant just kept scoring points. The trainers came out and had to assist the red contestant off the court. It was pure comedy. I bet Big Bear was SWEATIN it, thinking he had a lawsuit on his hands. Maybe the contestants had to sign a waiver to participate. I bet the red contestant didn't think he'd be leaving with a concussion!

Anyway, the Jazz came back in the 3rd Quarter and just smacked the Spurs to go up by 10 at the beginning of the 4th quarter - punctuated by this Deron Williams dunk over Tony Parker Just awesome and the place went nuts!!! (I was a little disappointed the place wasn't full, but the roads were pretty crappy - still - the true fans were there ;-) )

The 4th quarter started with SA going back up by 1, yep an 11-0 run, ridiculous. But that is the NBA, anyone can make a significant run at any point in a game. It just made the end of the 4th quarter SUPER exciting, edge of your seat stuff and the Jazz pulled out the win in dramatic fashion, showing some real heart and tenacity. It was just a great game to attend!!!

If I could afford it, I would go to EVERY game. GO JAZZ!!!

2012 - Movie Review

Sometimes, you see a movie that makes you think you should never go to the movies again. This may have been it (or Where the Wild things Are...) This movie was SO dumb. What happened to lots of good movies coming out during the holidays? I am looking forward to Sherlock Holmes, that looks awesome, and Robert Downey Jr. has been nothing short of amazing since his stint in jail for drub possession, or whatever it was. So, that looks like it might redeem the season of garbage movies. Christmas day!

So, I'm really disappointed in John Cusack for doing this retarded movie. I guess it's like the Rock doing kiddie Disney movies almost exclusively now, but Cusack can actually act, so it's not really an apples to apples comparison.

Basically, the Mayan Calendar ends on 12/21/12 signaling the end of the world due to increased activity from the Sun heating up the earth's core and hilarity ensues, like California sinking into the Pacific, a mountain in Africa becoming the highest point on earth and Asia shifting 1500 miles to the East, conveniently enough so Cusack's plane can make landfall after running out of fuel (because they couldn't stop in HI, because it had been reduced to a Volcano again). Blah, Blah, Blah. DUMB. Don't see it in the theaters, MAYBE on Red Box, but it is LOOOOOONG, so be sure to have plenty of Red Bull or something to make it through. 1 out of 5 stars, good luck with this one...