Movies: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and also Guess Who

Besides starting with the letter "G," these movies have something else in common:  they are classics reworked with a twist.  Guess Who is a take on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.  This time instead of a white chick in the 60's bringing home her black fiance to meet her parents, it is reversed, now she is black and bringing home her white guy to meet the folks.  Even with Bernie Mac, Guess lacks laughs.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a remake of a Christmas Carol but instead of Scrooge learning about the Xmas Spirit, it is Matthew McConaughey who learns about love and commitment and crap like that and gets kind-of sappy at the end.

You can't go wrong with a classic, can you?

Both movies are extremely predictable, and I managed to stay awake throughout each of them.  But I liked Ghosts and Guess left me kind of flat.  Naturally, I have to torment myself as to why?  Why did I prefer Ghosts over Guess?  Why? Why? Why?

Was is that Matthew McConaughey is just so sexy and good to watch?   No, but he is just yummy.

Was Guess lacking in heart?  No, it had a little heart.

I had to think about this until I came up with an answer, even though there are so many more important things in the world that I should be thinking about instead:  poverty, pollution, politics, tornadoes.  Real issues.  I live in the tornado belt and those things are scary. I mean SCARY! Especially in the middle of the night when the tornado siren goes off and wakes you out of a sound sleep.  You wake up and it takes you about 15 minutes to figure out what that noise is:  why is my alarm going off in the middle of the night,?  Did I set it wrong?  How come it won't go off when I hit the snooze button?  And then:  OH, NO, Tornado! Bolt to the basement and huddle down there wondering what's going on.   Nothing happens, but the siren is still going, so I always go back upstairs to see if anything is coming.

So I finally figured out why I like Ghosts and not so much Guess.  In Ghosts the main character -- that good looking hunk of a man -- Matthrew McConaughey, gains some insight into his own self.  He gets to see himself how others see him.  While he thinks he's being sophisticated and funny, others see him as a jerk.   He sees how his actions that he considered inconsequential, hurts others.  Ah-ha -- characters that are less than perfect and are able to grow, make for interesting watching.

Prison Break: The Final Break

When describing the 2 hour finale to the series Prison Break, one word comes to mind:  unnecessary.

One question keeps ringing in my ears:  How is it possible that a series that started out so strong, interesting and thrilling ends up weak, boring and plain old blah?

They could have tightened up Season 4 and incorporated all of this in the last season.

Sara looked terrible and Gretchen was getting a little chunky.

The only interesting character in The Final Break was Big Daddy, who heretofore shall be called Daddy-Dyke, but they didn't even tell us why she was in prison.  What's more, Daddy-Dyke was married, so how can she be Daddy-Dyke?  I was waiting for the line where she claimed she murdered her husband for cheating on her.  Then she could have added:  That would have only gotten me 12 years, but when I ripped his heart out and chopped it up and sauteed it with some garlic and vegetables, they said that showed no remorse and so I'm in here for life.  Then Sara, always calm and always wise would say:  Why didn't you just get a divorce?

Daddy-Dyke was so good, if they ever do a women-in-prison type TV series she should be the main foil.  This isn't a bad idea here.  How about a Texas women's prison, and some cute young thing is falsely convicted and accused of some heinous crime.  Instead of focusing on the escape, focus on the dysfunction and abuse in the prison.  All the women (guards and prisoners) could be PMS-ing all at the same time, and they could get really mean.  They could bring in this woman half crazy who claims up and down she didn't kill her child and keeps insisting:  A dingo ate my baby.  Having scenes with the women showering would be sure to get the male viewership, and women would watch because of its intense plot and off-beat characters.

Movie: Dillinger with Johnny Depp except the Movie is actually Public Enemy...I think

I love Johnny Depp.  As an actor, he is really fun to watch. He is just cute. Unfortunately, just because I love an actor, doesn't mean I will go see all their movies.  No matter how much I like someone, if the movie doesn't interest me, I won't go see it.  Likewise, if I really hate an actor, like Angelina Jolie, but she's in a movie that I would like to see I'll go see it.  I don't hate Angeline Jolie, I'm just jealous -- not of Brad Pitt or her big lips, but her great body.  God, I hate her.

A long time ago I knew this guy and his last name was Dillinger, and his first name was maybe John, or Steve, or Brian or something like that.  I asked him if he happened to be any relation to the notorious criminal John Dillinger.  He said he was, that the criminal Dillinger was like a great uncle or something.  How cool!  He said it wasn't cool, that their entire family had a bad name due to him.  I guess that movie's going to bring up some bad memories.

When I heard Johnny Depp had another movie out, I was jumping and down, shouting with joy; and my boyfriend who hates Johnny Depp because of his politics said there was no way we were going to see that movie.  Of course, I always have to have my way, and I convinced him that we should see it anyway, because after it was Johnny Depp, who was so distractingly attractive when he played that pirate.

Yeah, he looked good in Pirates of the Caribbean.  It gave me plenty of fantasy material for years. Is there something wrong with me that I'm attracted to the slimy, unkempt pirate with braided beard over that nice Orlando Bloom, who anyone could take home and proudly introduce him to mother?

Anyway, the previews for Dillinger were happening and I realized the only reason I wanted to see the film was because it starred Johnny Depp.  But Johnny Depp wasn't looking very much like a pirate in that movie, so I decided to defer to my boyfriend's stupid politics and pass.

You know how like on Facebook they're always doing those stupid quizzes? I think they should do a Johnny Depp quiz where you guess his movie based on a picture of his teeth.  It would go something like this:
Question 1:   A picture of smiling lips and big, white straight teeth.
    a.  Chocolat    b.  What's Eating Gilbert Grape  c.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory d. Ed Wood
Question 2:  A picture of a mouth full of braces.
   a.  Blow   b.  The Secret Window  c.  The Ninth Gate  d.  Edward Scissorhands
Question 3:  A picture of mouth full of crooked, rotten teeth.
   a.  Arizona Dream  b.  Platoon  c.  From Hell  d.  The Libertine
Question 4:  A picture of his gold tooth  -- easy Pirates of the Caribbean, but wait
  a.  Pirates 1   b.  Pirates 2   c.  Pirates 3  d.  all of the above  e.  Pirates 1 & 2

PS:  Great news,  a Pirates 4 is coming.  Yippie Skippie.  I'm getting hot just thinking about that bad boy Jack Sparrow.

Movie: Greenfingers

Slow start, it takes about 30 minutes to get into it.  Then the film gets a lot better and is worth watching.  It's about prisoners gardening.  Parts are delightful, makes you want to go plant a garden.

Television: Grey's Anatomy

Last week was the 2-hour season premier of Grey's Anatomy.  I sort of listened to it while I worked on the computer.  Regardless of all it's flaws, I'm hooked.

Last night (Oct 8, '09) I broke down and watched it in its entirety.  I correctly predicted that Little Grey would not be a match for her father's liver and that Meredith would be a match and in the end donate a portion of her liver.  The cynic in me thought her father would die anyway and Meredith would have gone through that whole operation for nothing, but he lived.  I guess they're going to let Meredith finally come to terms with her father. There were a couple more predictable events in the show; hopefully as the season drags on it will get better.

Grey's Anatomy started going downhill Season 1 when they hosted a high school prom in the hospital.  Oh, yeah, that was totally believable.  Then it redeemed itself with the dramatic scene of Izzy falling apart when her sick-guy (Denny) died, but I had the distinct feeling kids out of high school were writing the script.

The next major flaw was the season where Izzy fell for George.  George?  Oh, yeah, that's going to happen.  Izzy and George, come on.  Izzy played it well, but did any viewer out there for one second find that pairing believable?  I wish they had done more with George and his wife instead of making her gay.

Speaking of gay, my boyfriend always goes on-line and checks out actors and actresses and reads up on what is going to happen.  He looked up Grey's Anatomy and comes to me, guess who on the show is gay.

Me:  In real life or on the show?
Him:  In real life.
Me:  I have no clue and I don't care.
Him:  Come on, guess.  Just one guess, come on.
Me:  George?
Him:  Bingo!

What I didn't understand is since they are exploring gay relationships, why they didn't just make George gay.  Let him and Callie deal with that one.  Oh well, he's dead and the show goes on.  Maybe in typical soap opera fashion they'll bring him back alive somehow.

My favorite character on the show is Sandra Oh.  I just like her, I liked her in the movie Sideways too.  That was a good movie.  You know how they're doing product placement in TV and movies.  Whenever I'm watching something and I see product placement, I yell out, "Product Placement!"  My boyfriend snarls at me to shut-up.  Well, the movie Sideways was like a total product placement for Napa Valley. Afterwards I just wanted to go out and drink wine.

So anyway, I really liked the romance Sandra Oh had with that black guy who turned out to be a homophobe so they fired him.  Now that George is gone maybe they'll bring him back so Sandra Oh can choose between him and that rough and tumble red-haired army guy.  I can never remember these people's names.  That would certainly heat up Grey's lukewarm seasonal start.

Television: Carnivale

Carnivale takes place during the 30's dustbowl.  That with a cast of freaky characters is exactly like something I would want to watch.  Disk 1 came up on Netflix and my boyfriend and I started watching.  I remember a woman throwing up coins which was pretty cool -- I wish I could do that.   Then I woke up and the show was over.

Me:  What happened?
Boyfriend:  Nothing.
Me:  I mean on the program.
Boyfriend:  Nothing.
Me:  Mind if I put it back where the woman was throwing up coins?
Boyfriend:  I do actually.
Me:  You want to watch the next installment?
Boyfriend:  Not really.
Me:  Okay then.

The only thing I can really say about this show is it might be really good for insomniacs.

Movie: Inconvenient Truth

I was afraid to watch this film because it would be too depressing, reminding us that the earth as we know it is being destroyed and very little is being done to stop it.  Kind of makes you want to jump off a cliff.

Al Gore explains in layman's terms the compelling evidence of global warming.  Unlike most documentaries which become those "talking head" movies, this one steers clear of that and isn't too boring. There are some tedious parts, but overall, it is very interesting and watchable.

Rather than learning more about Al Gore, however, I would have liked to hear more of the hard science.  He explained a little about how some of the science was done, but more may have been dull, but it would have made the movie more substantive.  I would have liked some of these scientists to be interviewed and seen names and institutions doing this research.

Overall, it is a good film with an important message and well worth your time.