Author: Benford

Movie Reviews

I posted this to my Live Journal to share with my students but there’s no reason I can’t share it here as well. The first part is directly from my post about my trip to Houston. The second movie is the addition:

I went to Houston on Monday and while there, I had the chance to see two movies. Here’s what I thought:

Oceans 12.
Eh, it was okay but I liked Oceans 11 much better. 11 showed more of the train of thought to the heist and I really appreciated that. 12 had too many little story lines/heists going on and it was kinda hard to follow. It wasn’t horrible, though. If you’re going to go out and see it, catch an early show if you get a discount that way. (3 out of 7 stars)

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Wonderful, wonderful movie. The imagination portrayed in the movie is so well done. I actually sat next to my friend’s 5 year old and she made little comments to me through the movie but every time I went back to the movie, I was pulled right back in. When you see this movie (preferably in the theater), put yourself in your child-like state. Some other friends of mine took their kids to see it and although their kids enjoyed the movie, they didn’t care for it much. I don’t think they were watching it with the right frame of mind. There are little bits that could be scary for a the real little ones but if you read the first 3 books with them before you go, it might help. I haven’t read the books yet but they’re certainly on my wish list now! (hint, hint, nudge, nudge) I hear they’re a real easy but enjoyable read. (7 out of 7 stars)

My ears!

I came home today to find my smoke detector going off! It was ridiculously loud (and I guess thank goodness for that, really)!! My poor cats were in complete shock and trying to find places to hide from the noise. So, I go over to the smoke detectors with a broom to push the button to make it turn off to no avail! In fact, it sent the other one going — MORE NOISE!!! I can’t even figure out why the damn thing was going off. So I called the management office and they say they’re going to send the maintenance person right over…except come to find that he and his crew went to lunch outside of the walkie talkie range. ARGH!! So, the asst manager (aka “The Idiot”) comes over with a ladder to take the damn things down and take out the batteries. *whew* That was the longest 30 – 40 minutes in my life! My poor ears are still ringing. Not good for a musician….

Today

Since Len had the day off today, I decided to take time to visit him in H-town. I figured we’d lounge around and he’d work on his website but our plans changed quite a bit.

First, we were both quite hungry so we went to have Chinese at a place called Eastern (right, isn’t that what that’s called, Len?) YUMMY food. Len had taken me there once before and so when he suggested Chinese, I certainly didn’t turn it down.

Then, we went back to the house for lounging and Len’s working on his site when we decided we wanted to catch an early showing of Oceans 12. Eh, it was okay but I liked Oceans 11 much better. 11 showed more of the train of thought to the heist and I really appreciated that. 12 had too many little story lines/heists going on and it was kinda hard to follow. It wasn’t horrible, though. If you’re going to go out and see it, catch an early show if you get a discount that way.

While in the movie, Joe called with tickets to the Rockets game. So we met him and his friend Norbert and watched the game. Great game. Yao is HUGE!!! Rockets beat Toronto 114 to 102.

What a great day. It’s always worth my time to come to Houston but today’s spontaneous visit was very cool. I haven’t decided on if I’m going back tomorrow afternoon or staying until Wednesday morning. My boss invited me out to have dinner with his family and some of our mutual friends tomorrow night so I might try to make it for that. They’re going to our favorite Japanese restaraunt (Origami’s in Round Rock) and they’ll need a guide. 🙂

:-p

Argh! My head is all stopped up and hurts, my back is all stiff and in pain and on top of that, I’m sooo tired after a full nights sleep. I really hope I’m not starting to get sick. I really don’t want to spend my 2 weeks off work being sick!

It’s the wrong one, Charlie Brown!

Krez’s last post talked about good DVDs and Len & I both mentioned that we like A Charlie Brown Christmas (1956). Tonight, as I flipped through the TV, I ran across opening credits with Snoopy & friends playing in the snow. I was all overjoyed thinking I was about to catch one of my favorite Christmas specials. Low and behold, it was NOT!!! Instead, it’s All I Want For Christmas is a Dog, Charlie Brown (2003). Hmpf. It’s not terrible but it’s not what I was expecting. And on top of that, there’s really nothing much else on TV. Oh well. I’ve got an apartment to clean anyways. *shrug*

I do have to say that a quote I like from the movie is, “Rerun: Sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life.” (Rerun is Lucy & Linus’s youngest brother.)