Continue reading »]]> I’ve been following along as Mark Re-Reads the Harry Potter series and in his post today he discussed Hermione and what motivates her to be the insufferable know-it-all she was in the beginning.

This, along with the questions my husband has posed, has made me curious about Hermione.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books (as if I really need to say who she is, ha!), gives us a pretty good background for both Harry and Ron but there’s very, very little about Hermione’s pre-Hogwarts childhood. We know she’s from an all-muggle family and that she is most likely an only child. But that’s all we really know. There’s never any mention of extended family, how she fared in her pre-magical education (although we can assume she excelled in probably everything) and if she ever had any friends before Hogwarts.

I was quite surprised when I saw the last movie that we actually got to see Hermione in the muggle world (and in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes offered by any of the films.) Hermione is never ‘seen’ in the muggle world in the books, ever. She writes from her holiday trips with her parents, but that’s the only clue we have about her non-magical life.

I find this rather odd. Rowling is so good about making the world of Harry Potter seem so real. There is so much detail in all aspects of her story-telling that I have to wonder if Hermione’s lack of a past was on purpose. Certainly it’s not really important overall, but it would have been nice to have some clue as to why Hermione was such a nosy, stickler-for-rules busybody. It’s almost as if Hermione was fully formed, on the spot the second she stepped onto the Hogwarts train.

On Rowling’s website she states that Hermione is a bit like her when she was younger. Perhaps Rowling didn’t give us a past for Hermione because it was too close to home. A world-famous author needs a little privacy I suppose.

Continue reading »]]> Things have been getting me down lately but there are a few things that will always make me feel at least slightly better, no matter what. (These are in no particular order).

• Hugs from my husband
• Watching Fred Astaire dance
• Seeing growth in my gardens
• The fact that my dog is excited to see me every single day when I get home
• Messages from friends and family
• Listening to popular standards (songs) from the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s
• Watching escapist science-fiction and fantasy films/television

Continue reading »]]> No resolutions this year. I know what needs to be done, I know what I want to do and making a list won’t help me accomplish anything other than making yet another list to add to the plethora of lists I’ve made every year for decades.

Plethora. I’ve always liked that word, although I have never personally had a plethora of piñatas.

Anyway, so instead of a resolution list, I’m going to make a list of things I’ve learned over the past year. Yes, I will still be adding to my abundance of lists but at least this one is different. Some items will make sense only to me, some will be depressing and I have no doubt that most of them will be pop-culture related.

So, let’s get on with it.

1. I have learned that the following are cool: Bow-ties, Fezzes and Stetson hats
2. I have learned that people will believe any lie put before them if it affirms their fears
3. I have learned that the only Tea Party worth paying attention to occurs in Wonderland
4. I have learned that gold is not a good skin tone for Peter Cushing
5. I have learned that Star Trek: Enterprise got a lot better after it’s first season
6. I have learned that Pecan Pie is good for the soul
7. I have learned that the Harry Potter books stay good, no matter how many times I read them
8. I have learned that putting your faith in others’ intelligence and reasoning will only lead to great disappointment
9. I have learned that Wil Wheaton is a very funny individual and that his pets are freakin’ hilarious
10. I have learned that none of my family reads my blog
11. I have learned that the first Doctor was awesome and that Ian and Barbara are now in my top five favorite companions, third to Donna Noble and Ace
12. I have learned that Amy Pond is my least favorite companion and I sincerely hope she’s gone before Matt Smith finishes his run as the Doctor
13. I have learned that despite it’s rather weak last episode, Lost was still one of the best shows ever produced
14. I have learned that Danny Kaye was a pain in the ass to work with but that I still love watching and listening to him
15. I have learned that when it comes to growing flowers, my gardening skills are sorely lacking
16. I have learned that I like Hydrangeas quite a bit
17. I have learned that putting a bird bath in the middle of your garden will cut down on the number of nasty bugs on your plants
18. I have learned that Craig Ferguson is the coolest late night talk show host ever
19. I have learned that Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants equals true genius
20. I have learned that Spider and Scorpion does not update often enough
21. I have learned that watching a meteor shower with my husband is now one of my favorite things to do
22. I have learned that I still do not like Jonah Hill and don’t understand why Apatow (or anyone else, for that matter) continues to cast him in movies
23. I have learned that I can lose hours of a day playing Roller Coaster Tycoon
24. I have learned that J.J. Abrams relies on lens flares WAY too much
25. I have learned that you apparently never stop missing your favorite Kitty
26. I have learned that no one but my husband gets my Eurotrip references
27. I have learned that no one but my husband gets me, which is why I love him so much
28. I have learned that my tolerance for people is at an all-time low
29. I have learned that I find physics difficult to learn
30. I have learned that my grasp of World Geography is shaky at best
31. I have learned that some movies/mini-series are MUCH better than the books upon which they’re based (North and South trilogy)

I’m sure there are things missing from this list – I certainly hope so, anyway – but that’s all I could think of for now. My memory isn’t what it used to be…which is another thing I learned this year.

Continue reading »]]> Now what was it? I know it had something to do with one of my geek obsessions. I’m getting a book vibe, no! A movie vibe. Wait – both?!

Oh yeah, nothing big. Just part one of the last Harry Potter movie. As Ted Mosby would say, “Ain’t no thing but a chicken wing.”

Yeah, I know. Makes no sense.

But yeah, I was just reminded that today is November 19th and it struck me that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 comes out today and I actually gasped. (I’m such a dork).

I’ve seen all the movies in the theater except the first and I hope to finish them that way, but getting to the movies has proven difficult for us the past few years. There’s the cost, yes, but mostly it’s because we hate dealing with people. We won’t be happy going to the theater again until cell phones are banned inside the building and ushers actually kick assholes out. Don’t see that happening anytime soon so we just don’t go.

We missed Toy Story 3, The Expendables, Scott Prilgrim Versus the World. Hell, we’ve missed most everything for two years now. The last movie we saw in the theater was Iron Man 2 and before that, I think it was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

I’ve been re-reading the books. I haven’t been in a voracious reading mood lately so it’s going a little slow, which is good, actually. I’m processing more. Picking up on those little clues, names, etc. I’m on number four now, my least favorite of the series, but I’m enjoying it more this time than I ever have. I decided to re-read them because I’ve been following Mark Reads Harry Potter and I realized I remember so very little from Deathly Hallows. I’ve only read that one twice.

I can’t count how many times I’ve read the others, especially the first three. When I started with my current employer five years ago, all I did all day was scan documents. This was very boring so I listened to audio books. I don’t have many audio books – about ten – so I listened to them all many times. I had the first three Potter books (read by the spectacular Jim Dale) and I listened to them over and over. Never got bored with them. That’s really saying something.

J.K. Rowling may have her writing flaws – those pesky adverbs being one, but really, what writer doesn’t have that problem? – but her storytelling is off the chart. She also managed to create a hero that is so very human while still being a great HERO. Very rarely in these types of long stories is the main character my favorite character, but Harry is my favorite. He is very much a normal kid – average grades, typical pre-teen/teen hangups, all the flaws that come with that. But he rises above all that and does what he has to do to save the world, utilizing his strengths and having the intelligence and humility to turn to others for help when his own abilities aren’t enough.

Here’s to Harry Potter (via J.K. Rowling) – for changing the world for the better by teaching kids (and adults) about tolerance, true friendship and the importance of standing up for what you think is right.

Continue reading »]]>

Reefer Madness The Movie Musical Poster

Not really a Halloween movie, but continuing with our recent theme of the dangers of ignorance, we recently rented Reefer Madness The Movie Musical (2005) through Netflix.

I’ve been meaning to see this movie ever since I heard about it. First of all, it’s a musical – not too many of those being made anymore. Second, it features Alan Cumming and Steven Weber, two actors I really like. And although I didn’t even know who she was when I first heard about this movie, we also rented it for Kristen Bell.

I know acting in and of itself is an art form but I always have even more respect for actors who can do something else – especially singing and even more dancing. We had heard Bell sing a few times on Veronica Mars but only briefly but I could tell she was good. Reefer Madness certainly proved this.

A parody remake of the famous 1937 propaganda film of the same name, Reefer Madness the Movie Musical is a message movie about a message movie. I’ve never partaken in any illegal drug and have never really wanted to but even I know that the ‘dangers’ of marijuana are terribly exaggerated and always have been. The original film depicted all the terrible things that could happen if children get hooked on ‘the stuff’ and this musical depicts just how ridiculous believing this nonsense truly is.

The production values of this movie are top notch, the performances spectacular and the songs are – well, they’re pretty good. There a few stand-out numbers such as “Little Mary Sunshine” but in all honesty the songs are adequate at best. However, the staging of the songs is fantastic and make all of them something to look forward to.

And, personally, I think the songs would have worked better if they had been written in the 30′s/40′s style, but that’s my personal preference in music anyway, so take that observation with a grain of salt.

I highly recommend this movie even if you’re not musical buff. The comedy and absurdity of the entire situation is worth it.

Purchase Reefer Madness – The Movie Musical

And, here are a few visual highlights:

William Randolph Hearst is his Hero (Alan Cumming)

Mary Lane, the picture of good ol' U.S. of A wholesomeness (Kristen Bell)

Amy Spanger as Sally

No, Mary Lane, don't do it! (Kristen Bell with John Kassir)

The Effects of the Reefer (Kristen Bell and John Kassir)

The hippest Jesus I've ever seen (Robert Torti)

Continue reading »]]> It’s October again and for the husband and me, that means it’s time for horror movies galore! We watch them year round, but in October we try our best to watch one a night when possible.

We started a little late this year – we didn’t watch our first until the 2nd of October (we’re such slackers) but we’ve stayed on target ever since.

It wasn’t intentional, but we stumbled upon a theme for our two movies this past weekend – the consequences of fear and ignorance in extreme situations.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

Bubba Ritter...he's all messed up

We started out pretty low key with a made-for-tv movie from 1981. Otis P. Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) leads a group of weak-minded characters who are literally looking for any excuse to torment the local mentally deficient man-child, Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake).

After brutally shooting Bubba down while he is hiding inside his mother’s scarecrow, they find out that Bubba is innocent of the crime they were chasing him down for – the death of his only friend, little pre-pubescent Marylee (Tonya Crowe).

But that doesn’t really matter. They weren’t chasing him down for what he did – just for what he was – something they didn’t understand or, in Hazelrigg’s case, something they envied.

At the trial, where all four men are found innocent of murder, Bubba’s mother warns them that there are different kinds of justice and that someday, they will pay for what they did.

They find out that Momma Ritter is right when one by one, they are tormented by the presence of a new scarecrow in their fields – one that disappears when they gather their friends to check it out. Tension levels and panic rise as each are struck down in turn until only one is left and running for his life.

Being made for television, there is very little gore in this movie amounting to a little blood and some gunshot wounds. All violence is implied except for the brutal killing of Bubba and by today’s standards even this is pretty tame. However, the emotional impact has a chilling effect.

This kind of movie just doesn’t work without a strong cast and this movie definitely has that. Charles Durning, a steadily working actor from the 1960′s to the present, will no doubt be familiar to almost any viewer and his performance makes this film.

I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys atmosphere, a little mystery, strong characters and a solid story.

The Mist (2007)

On the run from monsters

Sunday night we re-watched The Mist for the first time since purchasing the DVD back when it first came out. Remembering how good the movie was, I wondered why we hadn’t watched it more than once. Halfway through the movie I remembered why.

This movie pisses me off. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great movie. It’s a very good adaptation of Stephen King’s novella by the same name, and even improves on some plot points that I really didn’t like from the original source material. The cast is top-notch and the direction superb.

I’ve just gotten to a point in my life where I can’t sympathize with ignorance any longer and especially the use of ignorance to generate fear and even more the use of religion to perpetuate that ignorance and fear. The character of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) is a loathsome woman who does more damage to the survivors of the mist than the actual monsters now roaming the world.

I realize that this is the point of the film – that letting others use fear to control us is even more dangerous than letting the unknown frighten us out of our wits. By the end of this movie, the few rational people left dare to face the very real monsters outside the store rather than deal with the even more dangerous monster that is now human society.

Perhaps this is why my husband has such a problem with the movie’s ending – which does differ from the source material and not in a necessarily better way. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but I think I have to to make my point here. Our few heroes brave the unknown but it still ultimately destroys them. The only survivor has to kill all that he has left, including the personification of innocence, only to find that it was completely pointless.

So, yeah, if they had kept the original ending from the book, my analogy here would have been much more uplifting. And maybe that’s ultimately why I’m not going to be able to watch this movie more than once every few years.

Less scary than fanatics

Still, I highly recommend the movie. So many of King’s horror stories have been butchered by Hollywood and director Frank Darabont does a marvelous job adapting this tale for the screen.

If you get the special edition, I do recommend watching it as intended – in black and white. We watched it in color this time and while it still works, the black and white photography lends more to the alien atmosphere outside the store and reinforces the metaphor of opposing factions inside the store.

Purchase Dark Night of the Scarecrow

Purchase The Mist on Blu-Ray

Continue reading »]]> SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses things that have happened in season 5 of the new “Doctor Who” series

I’ve really been digging the new “Doctor Who” episodes. I’m warming up to Matt Smith even faster than I warmed up to David Tennant (whom is one of my top three favorite Doctors).

But I’ve noticed something about some of the props and story lines and it makes me wonder if maybe that non-cannon Doctor will finally be brought into the proper canon of the series. I’m talking about Peter Cushing’s Doctor, of course.

Peter Cushing starred as Doctor Who (they even called him that) in two feature films – Dr. Who and The Daleks (1965) and Dalek’s Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) His Doctor was nothing like the television series Doctor. He was much more grandfatherly and even a bit of a bumbler. However, it was Peter Cushing so it was played perfectly. (Yes, I have a bias. Can you tell?)

In this 5th season of the new run of “Doctor Who,” it has been made very clear that past continuity will not be ignored. I loved the first 4 seasons, but Russell T. Davies – the show runner for seasons 1-4 -  was sometimes very self-indulgent and the stories often tended to ignore what came before Chris Eccleston as if it didn’t matter. If Davies didn’t come up with it, then it wasn’t pertinent.

Now that Steven Moffat has taken over, that sense of ‘oh, let’s just forget about all those other doctors’ has vanished. The first episode of the 5th season even featured film clips of all 10 doctors that came before Matt Smith. Yes, this happened during one of the Tennant Christmas specials, but this time it seemed more epic – like we were being reminded of his past incarnations for a reason and not just something to keep the fans happy.

I have a theory.

(But be warned – my theories rarely ever pan out. Almost every theory I’ve had about “Lost” has been completely wrong.)

It’s clear that the Arc Story of season five is this crack in space that Amelia Pond found in her bedroom when she was a little girl. It’s unclear whether this crack is everywhere, or if Amelia is creating it whenever she visits different places and times. What is clear is that it seems to be causing amnesia of some pretty important historical events – she doesn’t remember the Dalek attack on Canary Wharf for one. Unless she was vacationing with Donna Noble, it seems pretty hard to believe that she would just forget about something like that. And no one could forget seeing multiple planets in the sky when the Daleks once again tried to destroy Earth at the end of season 4.

There’s this issue of the new Daleks. They’ve very colorful. The series has had different color Daleks before, but not Technicolor. The only place that has had rainbow Daleks (that I can recall) is — in the Peter Cushing movies.

Movie Daleks

Series 5 Daleks

Yeah, but so what? you ask. It could just be an hommage to the Cushing films. And you’re right, it very well could be.

But then I found out today that the new design of the TARDIS is very close to the TARDIS design from the films.

Here’s a quote from Moffat himself:

It’s not only the Doctor who’ll have regenerated in the new series. The Tardis has also undergone a significant makeover.

“There is a plot reason for it,” Moffat confirmed. “I always liked the Tardis from the Peter Cushing [Dr Who] movies, and wanted to make it more like that.”

Cushing's TARDIS

Smith TARDIS

Sounds like more hommage stuff going on, but what if it isn’t? What if Moffat is trying to reconcile not only past series contradictions but is also trying to bring in Cushing’s Doctor as well? Cushing has passed away, but that doesnt’ mean he can’t be mentioned or referred to.

Yes, just more wild speculation but there’s a big part of me that hopes I’m right. I don’t know how I would feel about there being Doctors in parallel universes but that’s one possibility of bringing in the Cushing Doctor.

(There have been two parallel universes that I have seen – one with John Pertwee and one with David Tennant – and neither of those had a ‘mirror’ Doctor. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but I had always hoped that the Time Lords were immune to the multiple universe theory.)

So, there’s my off-the-wall theory for the day fueled by my love of story continuity and admiration of Peter Cushing.