France and Splenda. Conspiracy or just good friends?

It's a little blurry, but I was zoom lensing like a mad person to get this picture of a bunny hanging out at my house. I spotted him as I was going to work. I had my camera in my bag so I was moving very slooooowwwwly to get it out, put the batteries in and take a picture without scaring my little friend away. Yay bunnies!

This afternoon I got a phone call. It was a phone survey that started like this:

What do you think of France? Do you approve, disapprove or have no opinion?

I actually laughed and told the lady on the other end of the phone that I wasn't expecting that sort of question. I said approved because France seems to constantly get bitch slapped and two of my favorite film directors are French.

I think we went through 5 or 6 questions on France. What did I think of their president? What words would I use to describe the France? She listed off about 10 words (and one sentence) that I was supposed to choose from. By the time she got done listing my options, I'd forgotten half of them. Once I'd given her my word choices, the next question sent us off in another direction completely.

"Which of the following non-alcoholic beverages do you drink?"

Now, I was very confused. I was asked about seemingly every kind of soda, diet soda, juice, diet juice, tea, diet tea, bottled water, really pricey bottled water and energy drinks you could imagine. I was asked about Splenda, Equal, etc. I answered "no" to many questions. The whole time I was trying to figure out what France had to do with these drinks. Are they trying to gain a strong hold on the beverage market? Are they hoping Coke or Pepsi will sponsor a theme park to rival Euro Disney? Are the French creating Splenda and are they adding ingredients that will cause Americans to crave escargot?

When everything had been answered and the lady thanked me for my time, I asked her what France had to do with my drink preferences. All she said was they do surveys on many topics. Apparently they like to go with completely unrelated topics. I still wonder if there isn't some sort of greater truth to be found, maybe a greater conspiracy. I think I'll check for phone taps just in case, 'cuz once you give France a thumbs up, you are a marked girl.

You will remain awake for this one!

The latest adapt of a Dan Brown novel, Angels & Demons, is thankfully much better than the first flick we slept through a couple of years ago. Tom Hanks sports much better hair in his return as Robert Langdon, all around signs and symbols guy. The pace of the movie is set by the plot of the book. Because the action takes place over the span of a few hours, the movie has no choice but to keep up.

The movie really is a decent little thriller. I can't help but like Hanks in pretty much anything he does and he doesn't disappoint. Getting to zip through the streets of Rome is a highlight. Apparently, they shot the scenes guerrilla style and the kinetic pace of the filming helps maintain the pace of the story. There are plenty of great actors to enjoy. I'll admit that I would happily confess my sins to Ewan McGregor. There are some pleasant twists and turns and the gore factor is not over the top, but it's not shy either. If you've read the book, you'll be pleased that virtually all of the key plot points have been kept...though some bits were shortened for time. Definitely worth checking out.

Also worth checking out is the new trailer for Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. We have to wait until Christmas for the movie, but I'm happy for this taste of Robert. It looks like it will be quite funny and full of action. Hopefully Guy Ritchie will be back on form. Check out the trailer here.

"It's always something with you people."

WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SEASON FINALE OF LOST YET, DON'T READ THIS!!

Time for the Lost finale recap, which has almost become a tradition with me (for better or worse).

Here's some random things in rough chronological order as they appeared on the show.

-It was cool to see the Black Rock while Jacob and ? were talking on the beach.

-I'm starting to wonder if we are going to get a flashback with Kate as Patsy Cline. As soon as you hear Patsy, you know Kate is involved.

-First "Jacob meets the gang" moment involves the purchase of a New Kids On The Block lunch box...obviously a bad omen.

-So, Richard doesn't age because of Jacob? How does that work exactly? Jacob doesn't age either.

-Jacob does his Ione Skye impersonation and gives young Sawyer a pen. (Okay, that's not exactly it, but any time I can work in a Say Anything reference, I will.)

-I gleefully enjoy "bitchy" Ben. He is wonderful when he is snarky.

-Hmmm...just how nice is Jacob when he sets up Sayid's wife to get hit by a car.

-Because, sometimes, we must have obvious justice, Ben's Dad shoots Sayid.

-YEAH VINCENT! SUPER YEAH FOR BERNARD AND ROSE!!! I love B & R more than I can express. How freakin' cool is it that they have been just hanging out for the last three years enjoying their time together?

-What's in the freakin' box?

-Jacob knows Ilana (sp?) too. I wonder how long he's known her. Apparently she feels their relationship is strong enough to withstand burning his crappy shack.

-BEST JACOB MEETS THE GANG MOMENT: While sitting in front of a large building, Jacob is reading is Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge." Moments into the flashback, we see a body falling to the ground behind him. It's Locke when he fell out the window and lost the use of his legs! I probably shouldn't have, but I laughed at the funny weirdness of it.

-Gleeful Locke works his mojo on bitchy Ben, pushing all the right buttons to try and convince Mr. Linus to kill Jacob.

-Thanks to various storm warnings, I wasn't able to read the captions for Jin and Sun's wedding when Jacob was there.

-Jacob is almost the old woman who lives in a shoe; instead, he's the ageless man who lives in a foot.

-So Jacob buys Kate a lunch box, gives Sawyer a pen, does something at J & S's wedding, buys Jack a snack--but essentially kills Sayid's wife...not very fair I say.

-Jack and Sawyer chat and surprise to no one, all of Jack's bomb motivation has to do with Kate. Man up dude! I believe Sawyer feels the same because he goes on to kick Jack's ass.

-Poor Juliet realizes this is the beginning of the end for her and lovely James so she decides to help Jack to keep her and James from ever meeting so she will never be hurt.

-Jack convinces Kate to join him by hitting the Claire Guilt Button found on Kate's soul

-Hey look, Jacob got Hurley out of jail...these things are starting to get just a little annoying.

-Jack snags the bomb and heads off, but not before kissing Kate...no wait, that would only happen if he'd stop being quite so unrequite-y...instead he LOOKS at Kate. Erm...okay.

-Locke and Ben go into the foot to see Jacob. Here Ben, have a big ass knife.

-Miles has slowly become one of my favorites. How brilliant that he points out that perhaps setting off the bomb is "the incident" they are trying to avoid? "Glad you all thought this out..."

-Guns, explosions, yelling, the drill won't stop, sorry Phil, drop your weapons, Jack tosses the bomb into the hole, Jack and Kate share a look, Sawyer and Juilet share a better look and....and....and....NOTHING HAPPENS! Oops. Hold on, something does happen...remember when the energy was building up before?...metallic things start flying towards the hole. Miles helps his Dad, Jack is knocked out, Juliet gets snagged by some chains and is drug into the hole. (NO, NO, NO, NO...she's such a great actress and character!!!) Plenty of amazing acting between Elizabeth Mitchell and Josh Hallowy ensues as Sawyer tries to save her (Kate can't do much). F*CK ME, THEY'RE GOING TO KILL JULIET!!

-What lies in the shadow? "He who will protect us."

-Seriously, what's in the box...a body from the cargo hold? Slow reveal to...LOCKE'S DEAD BODY! What the hell? Who's in the foot with Ben?

-"Locke" aka ? from the opening is gleefully egging Ben on while Jacob tells Ben he has a choice. Sadly, Ben feels like Jacob has completely ignored him the entire time he has been on the island. Plus, when Ben asks Jacob what is wrong with him, Jacob answers with a "What about you?" Not entirely snarky, but probably not what Ben needs emotionally right now. So, Ben stabs him...twice. Just before getting kicked into the fire by "Locke," Jacob says, "They're coming." Who's coming? The crew from the 70's? The group lead by Ilana? Crazy ninjas? Sane ninjas?

-Back to the hole, Jack, Kate and Sawyer start trying to leave (where are Miles, Sayid and Hurley during this?). ACK! Juliet is still alive...just. Well look, there's the bomb. She starts hitting it with a rock and KA-BOOM!

-Then the "poof-ish" sound effect and the title appears on screen. YOU BASTARDS! At least 8 months before we know what happened! How did ? know about Locke? How long has he been off the island? How do he and Jacob get off the island? Did he visit everyone too? Where the hell is Claire? ARRRGGHHHH!!!!! Did the smoke monster know that "Locke" was ? guy? If so, does that make the smoke monster work exclusively for the bad guys or does Smokey have a separate agenda? By appearing as Alex, it pushed a very guilty feeling Ben to vow he would do whatever Locke told him to do. Is it working with ? to get rid of Jacob or was it fooled too?

No wonder I love this show!

Thoughts?

Sci Fi Weekend

Knowing that I will fall behind on my summer blockbusters if I don't get to them within the first couple weeks of their opening, I hit two flicks today. I'll start with the crap.

Wolverine. Ugh. Hugh, I love you, but did you read the script? While I can see the bonus of you popping up out of water naked and glistening, such a scene is not quite enough to redeem this pile of poo. It's not for lack of trying on your part. You just had crappy lines, a weak story, and too many characters (a problem with X Men 3 in my opinion) to work around. I was looking forward to seeing Ryan Reynolds, but he's barely in it. Instead, we get more of Will.i.am, which no one needs really...especially since he isn't a very good actor. There was potential for this to be great; Wolverine was definitely the most interesting character to come from the first 3 movies. But, instead we get stiff acting, marginal SFX (the claws looked really lame most of the time for some reason), and a cliched story.

Star Trek was much better. Visually, it is a beautiful movie to watch. I guess ILM did the SFX work and it is stunning. I even dig the new look to the process of "beaming up." I thought all the actors were solid in their roles, though Karl Urban as Bones never quite worked for me. But,he and Kirk do have one of the funniest scenes together so I'll give him props for that. I would have liked to have seen more Simon Pegg, but I know it's not a film about Scotty.

The first half of the film is the strongest. The action set pieces are impressive and the opening sequence actually had me a little choked up. But, the story seemed to drag in spots and there were too many coincidences for my taste as the movie progressed. I thought Zachary Quinto was perfect as Spock and Chris Pine had just the right mix of bravado for a young Kirk (no channeling of Shatner here).

The set design was sweet and bonus points to the music dept. for their use of a Beastie Boys tune. I would've liked a bit more bad to our bad guy. He's there, then he's gone, then he's back, but if felt a bit haphazard.

Still, for a fresh look at an origin story, it was a pleasure to watch and had more than enough moments to make it a pretty cool summer movie. You don't even need to be a Trekkie to have fun with it.

I'm a little nervous about the upcoming Angels & Demons since Da Vinci Code was such a snooze fest. Everytime I see the Terminator Salvation trailer I get excited, but I can't decide if that's because of Christian Bale or the supremely excellent use of Nine Inch Nails' "The Day The World Went Away." I saw a longer trailer for Up and I absolutely can not wait. Pixar productions are the only Disney product I can stomach for the most part. Sam Raimi (sp) is back with Drag Me To Hell and don't even get me started about HP6.

Well, I better close. I still have my Mother's Day presents to wrap for my Mom and my sister. I realized that I will forever live a life of irony. The anniversary of the surgery that effectively ended my ability to naturally become a mom will always be around Mother's Day. That's right. It was one year ago today. It all just zipped by.

Run away! Run away!

Okay, I should be in bed, but just before logging off, I got the urge to look for something. I now present to you one of Cheaters finest moments.

I give you Woman Hitting Her Cheating Husband With Her Shoe in the Guy's Bathroom...in D minor.




I find the fact that the "other woman" took the time to get her leftovers boxed up before she headed out especially funny.

Just 'Cuz

This is what I found when I googled "ninjas." How could I not put this up?

I've been very bad about updating lately. This current trend works out really well considering I just found out a former bookstore employee/friend/all around cool chick has put a link to my blog on her website.

You should check out her always entertaining entries here. She's also in my points of interest section. Amy and Galaxy Carol always provide a good read.

Okay, this is fairly lame, but I'm tired. I should be updating with a recap of Wolverine and Star Trek over the weekend. Later.