Worst Ten of 2011

Worst Ten

1-           Bad Teacher

This movie is just horrible from start to finish.  Complete waste of time that insults you in every way.

2-           Hanna

A mess of a movie that makes almost no sense.  Long and boring.  Somehow it got rave reviews.  That pissed me off even more!

3-           The Green Hornet

Funny how so many of my worst ten movies have Seth Rogan in them?  Why do I do it?

4-           Paul

See #3.  This movie was horrible.

5-           Hugo

This is a very slow train to dullsville.  Also got great reviews.  For me it was like scratching on a chalkboard!

6-           Hangover II

I know my age group was not the demo this movie was aiming for.  I liked the first one.  This was just a cheap remake of Hangover I set in a different city.

7-           Rango

Probably the most dull animated movie I have ever seen.  Johnny Depp couldn’t save this dog.

8-           In Time

I give them an E for effort but that’s as far as it goes.  Too campy and low budget.  Justin Timberlake is not ready to carry a movie like this.

9-           The Eagle

This is a dreadful movie I can’t see how it was ever made.  Acting and story are very bad.

10-       Limitless

I had high hopes for this movie.  I think the director screwed this one up.  Much of the movie you feel you are having a LSD flashback.

Should have been better…

1-  Kung Fu Panda II

No where to take this story.  Yet still they tried.

2-  Water for Elephants

Might be a good book.  Not a good movie

3-  The Descendants

I know people that loved this movie.  Too downbeat, silly and depressing for me.

4-  The Green Lantern

Not a good year for green superheros.

5-  Tower Heist

Had some funny parts.  How many?  Watch the two minute trailer and you see pretty much every one.

                                                         

Killing Lincoln- Book

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

I will start by explaining what studying the Civil War was like in high school for me.  I moved from Oregon to Louisiana just before high school.  To most of the smaller town Louisiana folks the whole time I was there I was the "damn Yankee".  Did not matter that Oregon was not even a state during the Civil War.  I heard it all the time.  Mostly it was good natured.  Sometimes not.  So being the only "Yankee" in the room when the Civil War was being discussed was not really much fun.  I glossed over it as much as I could and still make a B.  I say that because most of what was discussed in this fantastic book by Bill O'Reilly was new to me.

The book begins a couple weeks before the end of the Civil War as the North has cut off the supplies to the South and General Lee.  General Grant cuts off the South's attempt to retreat to North Carolina where supplies and reinforcements are thus ending the war.  O'Reilly and his fact finder Martin Dugard go into amazing detail describing the battles and the amazing amount of death and destruction there was.  More Americans died in one day than in whole wars now.  The surrender meeting between Lee and Grant is so detailed you wonder if O'Reilly was there.

Once the War was over Lincoln faced the huge uphill battle of mending the sides.  Many on the North were set upon punishing the South and many on the South were not willing to admit defeat and move on. Lincoln seemed to foresee  his death but pushed forward with the country's business.

It was amazing the difference between then and now.  Back then the front door to the White House was left unlocked where most anyone could walk in.  It was common for lobbyist to sleep on the floor in the hallways near the Presidents bedroom in hopes of talking with him when he walked down the halls to use the bathroom.

The book goes into detail on how Booth thought of himself as a patriot and felt the South would look upon him as a hero.  He felt if he could just get out of town and to the South he would be treated like a king and planned to retire to Mexico.  There were plans to kill General Grant the same night, but Grants wife did not like Mrs. Lincoln and took an earlier train to avoid spending the evening with them.

Amazing to me there was only one soldier guarding the President when he and his wife went to the Theater.  That soldier left his post as the play started.  He proceeded to get drunk and never came back yet he was never punished in any way.

In the manhunt for Booth after the killing there were 80+ soldiers that drown while searching the swamps.   It was many days later before they caught Booth.  Had he not broke his ankle he very well may have got away.

O'Reilly keeps the pace going and tells the story in a way that is interesting and does not come across as a history lesson.  I liked the way he wrapped up the book with a "where are they now" with all the main characters telling what happened to the rest of their lives after the killing.

I enjoyed this book greatly and highly recommend it.

Watching Tv shows taped II

On the next day we had tickets to the filming of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Back in 2000 I went to a filming of the David Letterman show in NYC.  It was fun even though I had a bout of pancretitis. This was better.  I have been recording and watching the Tonight Show for many years.  This was a pretty big deal for me.

Leno films this show at 4p every week day.  Like the Talk it's "live on tape".  They film everything as if it were a live show warts and goofs and all.  They take 2-4 minute breaks where commercials would be and add those later.

With this show they ask you to show up at 230p.  It is filmed in a much bigger area that seats nearly 300.  Not alot of parking.  On the website they suggest you park on the street nearby.  We chose to pay to park in the garage a block away.  We got there early to scope things out and found a line already forming in a designated area of the parking lot.

They took us into the outside waiting area around 145p.  This again was where we were reminded how deadly it would be to make the mistake of taking pictures of this big parking lot.

I took the picture of the sign while waiting.  The lady coming down the stairs in the picture on the right sprinted over and said they'd take my youngest child if I took another.  I asked if I could trade him for a couple pics inside.  They said no.  She did not think I was funny at all.  

Close to 3p they started taking us into the filming area.  Once again they seat you by demographics.  Cassie and I had numbers 18 & 19 out of 300.  We got good seats in the second section with a clear view to Leno and his desk, but did not get seats on the floor like I wanted. 

Around 345p Jay walks out with no fanfare dressed in jeans and his denim shirt and warms up the crowd.  He is funny and very friendly.  He lets a few females come down and take pictures with him.  He leaves only a couple minutes before the show starts to change into his suit.  The band comes out barely a minute before the opening and go right to it.  

There is another guy that tells jokes and keeps the crowd going.  He tells us when to clap.  Cassie and I both admit our hands are sore from all the clapping the day before at the Talk.  This guy throws t-shirts too but I can't get to them.  

Jay comes out and does his monolog and kills.  His funniest bit was when he messed up telling a joke and had to start over.  A commercial break comes and a cue card guy sits a the desk with Jay scrolling thru the cards for the next bit.  A comedy bit is on Police Blotter.  Jay shows funny/stupid things that have appeared in local newspapers describing crimes.  I found it funny that many of the band members stared off into space or even checked texts while Leno did his thing just waiting for their time to come back.  

In the commercial breaks the band does play songs and are very good.  There are 15-20 security people that come out of nowhere to protect the stage incase a crazy person wants to storm the stage.  

The first guest is Michelle Williams.  I am not a fan of hers.  She is kinda tall and stick skinny.  I would be surprised if she weighs 90 lbs.  Her super short haircut make her look even more thin.  She is there to push her new movie My Week with Marilyn which Jay seems to have liked alot.  She is very shy in interviews and it shows.  Jay gives her one segment then prepares for the next guest.  One producer comes out and chats with Michelle during the break as another one talks with Jay in what looks like a set of questions for the next guest.  

The next guest is the reason Cassie came to the show.  Josh Lucas was a star of one of our favorite movies, Sweet Home Alabama.  He comes dressed in old blue jeans, a flannel type shirt that looks like it was pulled from the hamper and a three day growth of beard.  Yet Cassie still melts into the seat every time he looks out our way.  He tells some goofy story of how he was almost eaten by a mountain lion and somehow that convinced him to ask his girlfriend to marry him.  Guys in audience groan.  Females bat their eyes and swoon.  He is far more interesting than Michelle and gets two segments.  He has a new tv show coming soon called the Firm that Jay says will save NBC.  In the commercial break between segments Josh and Michelle chat like they are old friends as Jay looks left out and stares into space.  

The musical guest is some guy I have never heard of and can't remember his name.  He was better than I thought it would be.  

After the show Jay does a couple promos and Josh seems friendly as he waves to the crowd while leaving.  They dismiss everyone with the security people looking like they are ready to shoot anyone stupid enough to try to take a picture of the now empty set.  

As we were walking to our parking garage Jay drives by in a light green old Rambler and honks and waves at us.  That was kinda cool.  

Good time was had by all.  

Watching Tv shows taped!

Cassie has been a big fan of the daytime talk show the Talk for a while now.  She commented several times about how much she'd like to sit in the audience sometime.  In my house what the wife wants the wife gets! : >

We had a wedding anniversary coming up so I checked into it.  Turns out it's pretty easy to get tickets to see many shows being taped.  You can go to the official website for the show or one of several websites that have the function of putting rear ends in the seats of the shows like www.tvtickets.com.  I can't say I'm a big fan of the Talk but do like the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  I went online and was able to get tickets to both shows.  Below are our experiences for each show.

The Talk
This show seats just over 160.  This is a show that is taped live at 11a in Los Angeles at the main area for CBS.  We were instructed to be at the parking area at 915a.  We got there at 855a and was sent away to come back at 915a.  There was a line of ladies on the sidewalk that turned out were waiting for standby tickets.  Most all the shows will have tickets from people that did not show that they give away to people that wait it out.  We were around 20th in line.  They not only make you sign a two page release that no one reads, but they take a digital picture of you holding your signed document.  You then enter the gate.

Once you enter the gate you learn the worst thing in life you can do is try to take a picture anywhere near the filming area.  Even in the back lots walking to the filming area this is strictly taboo!  They were not as rude about it here as they were at the Tonight Show yet still made their points clear.

When you go inside to be seated when you got there or the number you have on your placement card means little.  The shows clearly have their demographics.  They pick the people they want to be seen on camera and seat them in the front rows. They seemed to try to give a good mix of all races and ages so people at home would see that show appeals to everyone!  I found out quickly the ladies seating people don't think it's funny when you complain about not being in the front row or try to move to a different seat from what they first put you.

We got a pretty good seat in the front row of the second area with a good view of the ladies.  A guy comes out early to warm up the audience.  He throws t-shirts into the stands.  Luckily I was a foot taller than the old ladies in my section and caught one for Cassie. Out of the 160 seats I would guess only 10 were filled with males like myself.  The warm up guy picked six of us guys to go up front and dance one at a time for a Talk coffee cup.  Let's just say I was screwed royally and didn't get to show off my white man overbite dancing skills.  Cassie got the shirt but no coffee cup.

The two guests were Peter Facinelli (the father vampire on Twilight) and Tracey Gold (she was on the 80s tv show Growing Pains).  Neither are big stars yet entertaining guests.

While the filming is going on in our sections there is a guy with a hand held camera pointing right at us for much of the show to film audience reactions.  They tell you not to look at the camera and to react wildly to anything said.  I thought we were on camera alot.  Upon watching I see we only made it maybe 10 seconds at the very end of the show.

During commercial breaks the ladies were invaded by several women I can guess are some sort of producers that prepare them for the next section.  While they are doing this the warm up guy comes out and tells jokes to the audience.  He asks Cassie and me how we met and what our first date was.  He was surprise to hear our first date was country dancing.  He said she must have felt sorry for me after what he saw in my dancing abilities. : >

After the show was filmed all the ladies took turns filming three second clips that are seen in commercial breaks of other shows I guess.  This was very entertaining as Sharon Osborne could not get any of the names right and showed the cursing she was so famous for on her reality show years ago.

It was a fun experience for me and many times better for Cassie who is such a fan of the show.

I got long winded here so I'll put the Tonight Show on another page...

We Bought a Zoo

We Bought a Zoo

Rating 5 out of 10

I have to start this review with the disclaimer that I saw this movie in California.  While I'm sure it's nothing out of the ordinary for people to see movies in the Golden State.  I hear they even make a few movies there.  The problem is I am a Georgia boy who was still on the Eastern time zone.  So the 7p start time was 10p to me.  Cassie usually goes to bed at 10p!  This movie was on the slow side so the rating may have suffered a bit because of that.

We Bought a Zoo was "based on a true story".  Benjamin (don't call me Ben) Mee played by Matt Damon with the Pert pretty hair and his two kids are still in a depressed state from his wife's death from cancer six months earlier.  The son is doing poorly in school and drawing scary things on paper.  Dad feels the family needs a change.  Time to move to the country.  The problem is when they find the perfect house it has a zoo attached.  Yes, somehow the only way you can buy the house is by agreeing to bring the zoo back to it's lost glory.  I'm sure that happens all the time.

The zoo comes with a five person staff headed by Kelly Foster played by Scarlett Johansson.  Ms Johansson just seems out of place on this part.  The cast of misfits have a short period of time to get the zoo ready to pass inspection or all is lost including Benjamin's life savings.

This is a mostly simple and safe movie.  You probably won't be sorry you saw it, but six months from now you'll be looking at the dvd cover trying to remember if you have seen it or not.

Young Adult

Young Adult

Rating 4 out of 10

This movie had all sorts of red flags for me.  Even though it had the very good and attractive actress Charilze Theron and commercials playing all over this movie opened on less than 33% of the screens of the big blockbusters.  The previews looked like it would be funny.  It's not a comedy.

Ms. Theron plays Mavis Gary.  A thirty something woman who believes (and may be right) that her best days were in high school when she was the beauty queen and everyone wanted her.  She moved out of the small town and became the author of a series of young adult books that does not even bear her name.
She lives a sad life of watching reality tv in her nasty apartment and drinking herself to sleep.

Mavis living inside one of her young adult books fantasy land.  She decides somehow she missed out on her high school boyfriend and sets out to get him.  In her reality it does not matter that he is happily married with a new baby daughter.  In her mind it is just a matter of time.

The problem with this movie is it's just not funny.  It's sad and pathetic.  I found myself squirming in my seat with her behavior.  Instead of laughing at or with her I felt sorry for her.

The Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin

Rating 6 out of 10

Until I saw the first trailer for Tintin I had never heard of the character.  Didn't know there was a series of books or what was going on with this dorky kid with the funny red hair.  The movie looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a try on a movie outing with my long time movie friends John and Ted.

What I found out was Tintin (not sure if that's his first name or last) is a youngish boy/man that is an investigative reporter for a newspaper.  Not sure how old he is supposed to be.  I was thinking he was very young.  Maybe mid teens.  But then he lives in a house to himself and his trusty dog.  He shoots bad guys with is gun and knocks out men twice his size with a single punch.

In the beginning of the movie Tintin buys a replica toy ship that turns out has clue to a hidden treasure inside and before you can say funky red hair the bad guys are killing people and tearing up his house looking for that clue.  Before you know it a chase is on that covers several continents and every mode of transportation you can imagine.

With this movie it's not the destination is the trip there that you go to the theater for.  The animation is nothing short of incredible.  From the cool airplane ride to the way the bad guys nose hairs move when he breathes in and out.  Incredible.

I take things too literal to really enjoy a movie like this.  Tintin walks into his destroyed house after bad guys looked for the hidden clue and he is only concerned that they didn't find it. Does not matter his house is tore apart.  He reads an airplane manual in two minutes and flies a plane like Sully.  I enjoyed the trip but these small things kept me from REALLY enjoying the movie.  John and Ted liked the movie more than I did.

I do admit the movie is a non-stop ride of visual effects.